‘Transformers: The Last Knight’ Super Bowl Trailer Hits Ahead Of Game [Video]

The Transformers: The Last Knight Super Bowl trailer has rolled out ahead of its official Sunday debut, but it doesn’t show everything. The TV spot, which will hit on game day, will be an extended version.

For now, we have the latest one narrated by Silence of the Lambs star Anthony Hopkins, who plays English Lord Sir Edmund Burton. Considering his usual roles in film, Hopkins could be a welcome change in a franchise known for its undignified use of Academy Award winning actors. John Turturro and Frances McDormand are among those casualties, though admittedly, Turturro also starred in an Adam Sandler movie (Anger Management) in a similarly over-the-top role.

The late Leonard Nimoy could have suffered the same problem, but he voiced Dark of the Moon’s Sentinel Prime with the dignity fans have come to expect and followed it up with a reprisal as Spock in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek. His unfortunate death in early 2015 made Star Trek Into Darkness his final big-screen role.

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley was one of the few whose acting career was practically launched in that same movie, coming straight from the pages of Vogue and GQ. Since then, she has gone on to play The Splendid Angharad, Immortan Joe’s (Hugh Keays-Byrne) pregnant slave in the Oscar-winning Mad Max: Fury Road.

Transformers: The Last Knight has a nearly Olympian task ahead of it, convincing critics that it isn’t going to be another typical Michael Bay movie rife with over-sexualization, needless explosions, and racist characters. The first film was a general success, but Revenge of the Fallen, known to be the only film Bay actually apologized for, became the film critics can’t seem to forgive him for, making his entire career a massive target for hate.

The Transformers: The Last Knight Super Bowl trailer appears to be taking a route more similar to Bay’s side project 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, a war movie with a more serious tone. For that film, he served as producer, much like his role with the rebooted Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He initially didn’t want to direct The Last Knight, but he wasn’t given a choice after no one stepped forward to take his place.

According to Sir Anthony Hopkins’ narration, the war for Earth has lasted far longer than we’ve known, and Gizmodo says he knows their secrets. Of course, previous films have pointed out their long-time history on Earth as well. Revenge of the Fallen and Age of Extinction have both made that part of their plot, with the Pyramids of Giza playing an important role in the Fallen’s plans, and the dinosaurs having been among the first to be assimilated for the Transformers’ race.

The war has become even more dire than ever due to Optimus’ actions in previous films. In Dark of the Moon, he had unwittingly brought Cybertron to near death by stopping Sentinel Prime’s plans to merge the two planets. Now Optimus appears to be following the same path as Sentinel, deciding that humans are no longer worth fighting for, and this time, Mark Wahlberg’s Cade Yeager might not convince him otherwise. The makers have apparently reprogrammed him with a new point of view, and he seeks redemption for Cybertron.

It’s worth noting that the maker’s voice was female, possibly ruling out Unicron unless they changed his robotic gender.

The killing of Bumblebee might only have been one of many. You might recall in Revenge of the Fallen that he single-handedly took on an entire group of Decepticons before Megatron temporarily killed him, and the Autobots aren’t as numerous now. The Dinobots might not be on hand to fight him either, as the Last Knight cast doesn’t have an actor listed to voice Grimlock. The same is true for Unicron, which also possibly means both might be in the film, but not have speaking roles.

With at least three more films in the franchise to come, one featuring Bumblebee, Optimus’ plans this time will apparently not succeed. When Transformers: The Last Knight hits theaters in June, will you be among those willing to give Michael Bay one more chance?

[Featured Image by Paramount Pictures]