“Here’s the deal: People can be terrible about things they don’t understand,” Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfeld) explains to her impressionable VW bug-turned-Autobot, Bumblebee. “From now on, the only person you can show yourself around is me.”
On her 18th birthday, Charlie discovers a yellow VW bug hidden among the rubble at her local junkyard. She quickly realizes the bug is much more than she bargained for: it is, in fact, an Autobot. As the film’s newest trailer reveals, Charlie and Bumblebee’s developing friendship is interrupted by nothing short of world war, and — as his fellow Autobot explains — Bumblebee is presumably the only one who can stop it.
“Bumblebee” marks the “Transformers” franchise’s first spinoff, as well as its first installment featuring a female protagonist. Steinfeld starred in last year’s “Pitch Perfect 3” and received a Golden Globe nod for Kelly Fremon Craig’s “The Edge of Seventeen.” She first received an Oscar nod for her feature debut in 2011’s “True Grit.” Her latest projects include Apple’s forthcoming series on Emily Dickinson, where she is slated to play the titular role.
“Bumblebee’s” writer, Christina Hodson, has most recently signed on to pen DC Entertainment’s upcoming feature “Batgirl.” Her other credits include “Unforgettable” and Harley Quinn spinoff “Birds of Prey.”
“Bumblebee,” also starring John Cena (“Blockers”), hits theaters December 21.
