Bumblebee will be voiced by The Maze Runner’s Dylan O’Brien

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Throughout the TRANSFORMERS franchise, Bumblebee rarely speaks with his "real voice," instead being forced to communicate with a series of soundbites, but the upcoming BUMBLEBEE will apparently change all that. While speaking with IGN, TRANSFORMERS franchise producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura revealed that Dylan O'Brien (THE MAZE RUNNER) will be lending his voice to Bumblebee in the new film.

Since we were approaching this as an origin story, we felt that it was appropriate that you got to hear his voice. That’s the simple logic that we employed. The longer term implication of that is different. But the short-term implication of that is, since we really are resetting the mythology, essentially, of who Bumblebee is. And so, that seemed to us to be the appropriate, to get the chance to hear what he sounds like.

"Dylan has that great quality in his voice of youthful exuberance, and also sort of trustworthiness," Di Bonaventura continued. "I think those are the two qualities that we wanted Bumblebee to have." The previous trailers haven't given us any examples of Bumblebee's new voice, but Di Bonaventura added that those who have heard Dylan O'Brien as Bumblebee have reacted positively. "Thankfully, we’ve showed it to a few audiences, and people seem to think that it’d be right and an appropriate voice," he said. "You never know, obviously that can be a sensitive thing for people. But it turns out, they imagine his voice that way." For the first time in over a decade of TRANSFORMERS movies, I'm actually excited about BUMBLEBEE. It looks like a lot of fun, and seeing those original '80s designs successfully transformed really makes the entire project feel like TRANSFORMERS in a way the previous films haven't. Fingers crossed.

The official synopsis for BUMBLEBEE:

On the run in the year 1987, Bumblebee finds refuge in a junkyard in a small Californian beach town. Charlie (Hailee 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.

BUMBLEBEE will hit theaters on December 21, 2018.