Chris Hemsworth eyed to play GI Joe in Transformers crossover film

Though he plays shapeshifter Optimus Prime in the coming cartoon prequel, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura expects his role will metamorphose going forward

Chris Hemsworth joins a panel for Transformers One at this year's San Diego Comic-Con. AFP

When the animated prequel film Transformers One releases next month, it will mark a major departure for the franchise. For the first time in the big screen history of Transformers, the lead character Optimus Prime will be voiced by someone other than Peter Cullen – Chris Hemsworth.

But the Australian actor, 41, who is best known for his role as Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, will not be taking the reins for Optimus Prime moving forward, series producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura tells The National.

According to him, the plan is for Hemsworth to only voice this character, who is called Orion Pax at first, in the prequel cartoons. However, he is also being eyed to play a GI Joe in the next live-action Transformers film, which will crossover with Hasbro’s other popular franchise, Di Bonaventura says.

“In the live-action, I’m hoping he’s in the GI Joe part of things. Peter Cullen will remain Optimus Prime in live action, but Chris would make a good GI Joe,” says Di Bonaventura. “Moving forward, the animated movies will be different from the world of live action. This is on a timeline that’s millions of years before the live action, so there’s never a conflict."

Peter Cullen, 83, who has voiced the character since the 1980s cartoons, will remain the star of the live-action films, Di Bonaventura confirms, which began with 2007’s Transformers and have spawned six successful sequels.

“Peter is a part of this franchise – there’s no way we’re abandoning him,” says Di Bonaventura. "The reason we needed a different voice for Optimus Prime in this film is it’s set before. It would sound weird if he sounded the same from the beginning – there needed to be evolution.

“We’re trying to take the character from a somewhat idealistic, slightly naive young man, into someone who is going to step into the leadership role of Optimus Prime. You need a different timbre to that voice. You need the youth of Chris. It’s not in any way a reflection on Peter – he’s just too old for it.”

The most recent film in the franchise, last year’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, introduced the world of GI Joe to the proceedings, promising a broader team-up in the next instalment. While that film has not been announced, it is currently in the works.

“We’re in the middle of the planning stage for the next live-action film, and we’ll probably get there for the next animated film not so far from now," Di Bonaventura says. "The trick of it is we don’t want to spend too much time explaining the two different worlds of Transformers and GI Joe, so it’s a balancing act. Do we limit the number of characters? How do we give enough taste of both without overwhelming things? That’s really where we’re at now."

While the story of Transformers One, which is set millions of years in the past and explores the origins of how the robots became the titular Transformers, will not directly lead into the next live-action film, it will affect the franchise moving forward.

“I don’t see them influencing each other than you learn lessons in one that may apply to the other,” says Di Bonaventura. "But the robots are very robust characters in Transformers One, and it’s going to force us to do something in live action from a story point of view.”

Part of the reason that the robots themselves have been difficult to flesh out to the level that they are in the coming animated film is purely logistical – namely, it’s just too expensive to keep them on screen for too long.

“In live action, we’re constantly saying: 'How much can we afford and still be creatively satisfying?'" says Di Bonaventura." Now I think one of the hard things for the live-action movies will be that you will have seen more fully developed robots, and therefore we’re going to have to figure out how to do that in live-action without breaking the bank."

Transformers One is set to screen in cinemas across the Middle East from September 19