Transformers: The Last Knight Super Bowl Promo

The Transformers live-action movie franchise has been going strong for ten years now, starting when director Michael Bay's block-busting first installment hit theaters in 2007. Bay is working on his fifth and (supposedly) final Transformers movie now, in the form of Transformers: The Last Knight. Mark Wahlberg is reprising his role here as inventor Cade Yaeger from the fourth installment, 2014's Transformers: Age of Extinction, while Transformers 1-3 star John Duhamel is also returning to his role as military man William Lennox for this chapter in the Autobot/Decepticon saga. Despite the familiar faces on both sides of the camera though, The Last Knight is poised to serve as something of a rebirth for the larger Transformers franchise on the big screen.

Transformers: The Last Knight is the first Transformers movie based on a story concocted by the Transformers writing group that Paramount Pictures put together back in 2015, to help map out an interconnected series of Transformers sequels and spinoffs for the next ten years (at least). For related reasons, The Last Knight is diving deeper into classic Transformers cartoon and/or comic book mythology than its predecessors have, as evidenced by the movie's inclusion of a plot thread where the heroic Optimus Prime turns "evil" - a dramatic turn of events that the Super Bowl 51 preview for The Last Knight further alludes to.

Michael Bay had announced the imminent arrival of The Last Knight's Super Bowl promo (which you can now watch online - see the video above) ahead of time, via the director's official website. The site also revealed that an extended 55 second version of the above 30-second trailer will be debuting on Super Bowl Sunday itself.

Transformers: The Last Knight - Optimus Prime

Paramount's Super Bowl preview for The Last Knight hits on certain plot points mentioned in the film's newly-released synopsis; showing that humanity and Transformer-kind are at war (again), while at the same time foreshadowing what prompts Optimus' turn to evil in the film and his subsequent throw-down with his fellow Autobot, Bumblebee. The key to saving the world this time around lies with secrets about the Transformers' history on Earth and somehow connects with the legend of King Arthur, as the movie's subtitle indicates. This is presumably where the character English Lord (Sir Anthony Hopkins) comes into play, as both the theatrical and Super Bowl preview for The Last Knight suggest he has vital information about this secret part of history on Earth.

Bay's Transformers movies have typically delivered in the areas of grand-scale spectacle and CGI-heavy action; and by the look of the Super Bowl promo, The Last Knight could be the director's most technically sophisticated installment in the franchise yet. The story is always the big issue with Bay's Transformers films, but this time around the narrative has been crafted by the likes of talented Transformers writing group members Ken Nolan (Black Hawk Down), as well as Matt Holloway and Art Marcum (Iron Man). Still, best to not expect to get a better idea of the plotline that The Last Knight's writers have cooked up from the extended Super Bowl preview this Sunday, as the trailer will almost certainly favor spectacle-heavy footage over those that focus on the finer points of the film's narrative (see: who this "Creator" is that Optimus is talking to in the Super Bowl promo).

Be sure and check back on Screen Rant this Sunday for the extended Transformers: The Last Knight Super Bowl preview!