The man behind one of the most evil Decepticons of all time, will soon be playing one of the oldest Autobots.
Leonard Nimoy, most famous for his performance as the ever-so-logical Mr. Spock on Star Trek, is joining the cast of Transformers: Dark of the Moon as Optimus Prime’s predecessor, Sentinel Prime. The venerable Autobot put in an appearance in first teaser trailer for the movie, or at least, what was left of him, after his ship crashed on the moon.
Director Michael Bay said that he had toyed with the idea of asking Nimoy to appear in the second Transformers movie, Revenge of the Fallen, but felt that even with the film’s enormous budget, he wouldn’t be able to pay Nimoy enough to get him on board. “I was too scared to ask him,” Bay said. “Plus, he’s married to Susan Bay, who’s a cousin of mine. So I had to be careful.” It seems his fears were ill founded, however, as Nimoy reportedly said he was “honored” to appear in the movie.
This will not the first time that Nimoy has lent his voice to the Transformers franchise. Way back in 1986, he played Galvatron in the animated Transformers movie. Galvatron was born from the ruined body of the nearly-dead Megatron, and served the planet-eating robot Unicron – at least until he betrayed him, thinking he could make the ancient horror his slave using an ancient Autobot artifact. Nimoy’s new role, Sentinel Prime, first appeared in the spin-off Transformers comics and has been a part of the canon for years. Despite this, he didn’t appear in a TV show until the Transformers Animated series that started in 2007.
Bay says that the robot character has more personality in Dark of the Moon than they’ve had in previous films, and that audiences will be able to understand both sides of the struggle. Nimoy has an amazing voice, and joins the likes of Hugo Weaving and Peter Cullen – who also have amazing voices – in the “giant robot” part of the cast. If Bay really is going to give them, and the other voice actors, more screen time, this might finally be the best Transfomers movie yet.
Transformers: Dark of the Moon opens in theaters on July 1st.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
Published: Apr 1, 2011 01:39 pm