John Cena has nabbed a lead role in the Transformers spinoff Bumblebee.
Hailee Steinfeld is leading the cast of Paramount’s new film, which will center on the yellow and black bot Bumblebee. The film will feature a young cast including Jorge Lendeborg, Jason Drucker, Abby Quinn, Rachel Crow, Ricardo Hoyos and Gracie Dzienny.
The story is set in the year 1987, where Bumblebee finds refuge in a junkyard in a small Californian beach town. Charlie (Steinfeld), on the cusp of turning 18 and trying to find her place in the world, discovers Bumblebee, battle-scarred and broken. When Charlie revives him, she quickly learns this is no ordinary, yellow VW bug.
Travis Knight, who directed the stop-motion movie Kubo and the Two Strings, is directing the new film from a script by Christina Hodson (Shut In). The movie project is the first spinoff in what the studio hopes will be a Transformers Cinematic Universe that will include prequels and offshoots from a line of movies that have generated more than $3.7 billion worldwide. The most recent film, Transformers: The Last Knight, hit theaters June 23, and has earned $568.9 million worldwide so far.
The film kicks off production today in California. Paramount has set a new release date of Dec. 21, 2018.
