Along with providing an exclusive image of Hailee Steinfeld’s character next to Bumblebee in his VW Bug form, Empire chatted with Travis Knight about the creative sensibilities he’s bringing to Bumblebee: The Movie that he absorbed working on Laika movies like Kubo and the Two Strings (which was his directorial debut), ParaNorman and The Boxtrolls.
To that effect, Knight hopes to achieve the same tonal balance he’s achieved on his animated endeavors to give the public a Transformers movie which, although will still feel like it belongs in this cinematic universe, won’t come off as being too similar to what Michael Bay has churned out the past five times.
Unlike the previous Transformers movies, which have all been global adventures involving saving the world in one way or another, Bumblebee’s scale won’t be nearly as large, instead opting to tell a more personal story… well, as personal as you can get with a blockbuster featuring giant robots who turn into vehicles.