On the run on Earth in the year 1987, Bumblebee finds refuge in a junkyard in a small Californian beach town. Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit), 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.

Not only is Bumblebee a throwback to the era that spawned the original Transformers toys, comic books and animated series, but fans will be excited by the G1 designs of the famous robots in disguise. Peter Cullen, voice actor for Optimus Prime since the beginning of the entire Transformers franchise in 1984 through the Transformers feature films, also returns once more to lend his voice to the noble leader of the Autobots.

The film is directed by Travis Knight, head of the highly respected stop-motion animation studio LAIKA and director of Kubo and the Two Strings, from a screenplay by Christiana Hodson. Joining Hailee Steinfeld in the cast are John Cena, Justin Theroux as Dropkick, Angela Bassett as Shatter, and Jorge Lendborg, Jr.

While the film isn’t an Amblin/DreamWorks production, it is executive produced by Steven Spielberg, his sixth Transformers picture as EP since the original film was first released by Paramount Pictures in 2007 in partnership with DreamWorks.