Leonard Nimoy, Star Trek’s perennial Spock, continues to remain un-retired with news today that he is returning to another sci-fri franchise. According EW, Nimoy will be lending his voice to this summer’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon. More details below.
Nimoy Prime returns to Transformers
According to Entertainment Weekly, Leonard Nimoy has joined the voice cast of Michael Bay’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Nimoy will be voicing Sentinel Prime, the predecessor of Optimus Prime whose wrecked body was found crash-landed on the moon in 1969 (as seen in the teaser trailer below). According to EW, Sentinal Prime will be brought back to Earth and will take the form of a fire engine "in the movie’s massive, climactic battle through Chicago."
Nimoy returning to Transformers to voice Sentinel Prime
This will not be Leonard Nimoy’s first time with a Transformers film. He provided the voice for Galvatron in the 1986 animated film The Transformers: The Movie. According to the report director Michael Bay considered bringing Nimoy on board for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, but he was concerned he couldn’t afford the veteran actor. EW quotes Bay discussing Nimoy’s other connection to Transformers:
"I was too scared to ask him,” the director says. “Plus, he’s married to Susan Bay, who’s a cousin of mine. So I had to be careful. I’ve met him at family functions. But he told me, ‘I would be honored. I’m glad to be back!’”
The third Transformers film (and first without Star Trek scribes Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman) opens July 1. Here is the teaser trailer.
Great to hear Leonard will be doing a voice in the next Transformers film.
But this also now puts me in a difficult position, I had my heart set on not going to see Transformers 3 because the second one was apile of crap and one of the worst films of all time in my opinion.
Now Leonard is in the film and I think I might try it out.
Great! Did they design Sentinel prime to resemble Nimoy a little? I can almost see it.
Glad to see Mr Nimoy’s 50th ‘retirement’ was short lived. He sure works a lot for a guy in retirement…Now let’s get him and Shatner on screen as Kirk and Spock one more time!!!
From Galvatron to Sentinel Prime really excited to hear Leonard Nimoy being in Transformers again. So what you will of Michael Bay or the Transformer movies, but I love them.
No script from Orci and Kurtzman? So we won’t be treated to Shif LeBouf running under Sentinel Prime and yelling “over here, under the robot scrotum!!?
Three months till opening, and still casting voice talent. Hmmmm…
Great news to hear that Mr Nimoy is back with the Transformers. Looking forward to seeing it even more. Now. We need the Shat and Nimoy as Kirk and Spock one more time!!!!!
Leonard, what are you doing “slumming” in a Michael Bay movie? I’ve actually heard him mention in the past his wife was related to Michael Bay, but he never got offered anything…so maybe Michael heard that and decided to pick up the phone.
Next up for Nimoy; the voice of Smaug in The Hobbit.
You heard it here first!
#5 Phil- casting voices this late in a movie is not unusual. Geoffrey Rush was just cast to voice Tomar-Re in Green Lantern and the movie is set for June.
7 did you read the article?
Good for Leonard Nimoy.
Actually I have a family member who, on a couple of occasions, has *complained* that he has never been busier since he “retired”. True.
#2 Yes. I thought that too.
#5 “running under Sentinel Prime and yelling “over here, under the robot scrotum!!?”
Really? LOL Dam, I missed that bit. Gotta love the OK humour…
Why nimoy? Bay-formers are garbage! the g1 was way better and galvatron was pure awesome. slightly dissappointed…
I really did have my heart set on boycotting Transformers 3, still trying to wash the second one away from my mind.
And the scary thing is Transformers 2 is number 15 in thehighest grossing films of all time. How does this work?
And before anyone jumps down my throat, that was a rhetorical question.
With Leonard in there I want to catch his voice on the film cause I love Leonard.
It is also because of Leonard I am beginning to relent and want to try Fringe.
This seems to happen when one of my fav actors appears in something I am not interested in.
@9. I did not know that, I learn something new every day. Thanks!!
@11. Rent Revenge of the Fallen and fast forward to the end. Truely a cringe inducing moment.
We have both Transformer movies on DVD. I have three children. It is a kiddult movie. Why would or should any of you expect it to be anything more than that? Let the movies be that. Why, doesn’t anyone like or have kids here? Actually, I am grateful because, without those small but grand minds, I probably would not have discovered and enjoyed characters/shows like, eg Shrek or Spongebob Squarepants! Ease up on what is essentially kiddult entertainment. I mean, seriously?…
Brett Favre comes out of retirement again?
The only thing missing here is Nimoy doing Wrangler Jeans commercials.
:-) LOL
I didn’t have any problem erasing the second Transformers from my mind, as it made absolutely no sense and was generally awful.
I’m bloody delighted with this news!!
Anthony Pascale … is having a busy day and fun here, for sure! LOL and +LOL
And yes…. great that Mr. Nimoy is back…. :-) :-)
15. Oh, I have kids. I’m sick to death of Spongbob, and if I didn’t have to explain the humor in Shrek, I didn’t. ROTF was just packed with cringe inducing moments, and it had nothing to do with kids being in the audience.
Unfortunately, I think we all know that this movie is still going to be unbelievably terrible.
Cool!
Leonard has done voice work for the 1986 Transformers cartoon movie as Galvatron and he’s back in the Transformers universe in this new movie as Sentinel Prime. Also, he’s related to Michael Bay through his wife, Susan. It’s nice to see Leonard doing Transformers again and I think it’s going to be a great family venture between them.
#15
The problem now is that many of these movies and tv shows are made by adults who think they know what kids like. They target these bathroom humor-filled “entertainment” pieces specifically towards that demographic. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with watching that sort of—crap—if you’re into, uh, crap.
But it is curious that the original Looney Tunes were made as filler material for theatrical movies decades ago—for adults! Yet, kids still loved them. Still do. A more recent example can be found in Batman:The Animated Series. A dark, intelligently written cartoon show that appealed to both kids and adults.
So, it can be done (with style and taste).
#25 Well, these adults DO know what kids like (and some adults as well) and that is why these films do well. I don’t recall much in the way of bathroom humour in the Transformer movies. Besides, there is only so much low-brow humour one can put into a PG rated movie.
I do recall seeing an animated Batman movie and that was a dark film. None of us liked it. Style and taste? Hmmm
There is also something called opinion.
26. ROTF was a well earned PG-13. Age appropiate material is the issue with this, as opposed to Hot Tub Time Machine and movies of that genre. Because of the toy tie in, ROTF was aimed at a younger audience, and I’d of not recommended it for anyone under 10. I would not have wanted to explain what a scrotum was to a little kid, or why the robot kept dry humping Megan Fox, let alone why any robot would need to imitate a reproductive act in general. The stupid hip hop robots just played off of stereotyping (yeah, it was questionable in The Phantom Menace, too).
He’s not really retired…as long as we employ him.
#26
—Well, just as long as they make plenty of money doing it. That’s all that matters.
—Big difference between a Batman movie (yeah, there’s been quite a few of those) and the animated “series,” as in TV show.
—Oh, and thanks for letting me know there’s such a thing called opinion—on a COMMENT board. Brilliant.
When they announced Peter Cullen as the voice of Optimus Prime way back before the first movie, I was really hoping Nimoy would be Megatron. I’m glad to hear he’s involved in the third one. He’ll be great I’m sure.
(For those who don’t know, after Megatron was “killed” he was turned into Galvatron in the movie when Nimoy originally voiced the character, although I don’t think he provided his voice when Galvatron reappeared in the series after the movie).
I’m pretty sure Nimoy doesn’t consider voice acting to be the same as regular acting, so he’s not really “out-of-retirement” because of this.
Booooo Leonard! Why be associated with this crud of a film franchise?
Nimoy WAS also the voice of Unicron the Planet in the 1986 animated version, but only during the second half of the movie. The character’s voice was played by none other than Orson Welles. He died halfway through the making, so Leonard took over the part as he was also voicing the character Galvatron. If you listen closely, you can hear the difference.
31. Greg2600 – March 31, 2011
Paycheck. Family favor, a close second…
30. Dr. Cheis – March 31, 2011
I was hoping Frank Welker would have been the voice of Megatron in the Transformer movies. He is and always shall be Megatron. It was a huge disrespect on Bay’s part to recast Megatron when Welker is such a huge voice talent.
I will say that it was fun seeing the first Transformers movies with my kids, but I was rather embarrassed to see the 2nd movie with them given some of the content. Plus the 1st movie had more charm and fun to it, and an OK story. The 2nd movie was a cluster-f**k on all accounts.
It would be cool if they could somehow work Nimoy’s silly Bilbo Baggins song into the end credits of one of the new Hobbit movies. I was disappointed that Jackson couldn’t work Zepplin’s “Battle of Evermore” into the end credits on one of the LOTR movies.
Now i have a reason to watch Transformers 3.
@ 32 GaryP
Incorrect The voice director later confirmed that all of Unicron’s voice acting was done by Orson Welles.
34. New Horizon – March 31, 2011
Bay said he had considered Welker for the part, and had given him a voice test (this is mentioned in a DVD special feature I think). He felt that Welker’s voice didn’t feel right for Bay’s Megatron given the size and bulk of his version compared to the original, which other than being kind of tall was actually somewhat slim for a Transformer. And he thought it wouldn’t have been appropriate to ask Welker to try to do a different voice, so he hired a different guy.
Frank Welker did do the voice of Megatron for the merchandising though, such as the video game.
I agree with Bay on this one. I can’t imagine that high-pitched voice coming from such a giant machine, although I don’t much care for the gaint-sized Megatron in general.
who retires more, Brett Favre or Leonard Nimoy? Let’s just call it retirement-lite…semi-retired…retired unless something really good comes along….retired until all outstanding favors have been called?…
Actually, I say, more power to him…if he wants to work, then work, if he feels like kicking back with the family, then kick away…I think Mr. Nimoy has earned that privilege.
Ah well this changes things a bit. so disappointed after the second movie, and was dead set on NOT seeing this one.
But Leonard Nimoy is “in” it.
Hey, sure, why not.
This is nice. I’m still not going to pay money to see the Transformers movie if I can help it, though.
Good to see Mr. Nimoy still going strong, though.
Well, with no writer’s strike bogging down this movie, it’ll hopefully be a tighter scripted movie. If Paramount hadn’t been so keen on having two summer blockbusters that year, they could’ve pushed back Transformers 2 and made a GOOD movie out of it, but no.
But this…Transformers 3 just became awesome.
Nimoy did a voice for the land of the lost movie-it was the only 5 second in that movie that didnt suck–i expect the same from transdefoamers 3
Oh heck, YEAH!
with a voice like that it’s a crime not to hear him more!
No.39 Frank Welker currently voices Megatron on the Orci/Kurtzman Transformers Prime series. The voice he does is pretty much the same voice as Hugo Weavings, maybe even a little more guttural.
Frank Welker is one of the greatest voice actors of all time for a reason. Bay just wanted a mainstream recognised role in the voice despite what he said about wanting to hire Welker. At least he corrected this mistake somewhat and brought him into the second despite it being diabolical! I have high hopes for the second now O/K are off the job and no writers strike is involved.
Well this is just fantastic news. :)
One thing I think should be pointed out as a counter argument over the quality of the Transformer films is that ROTF was almost entirely made during the writers strike. Michael Bay took a lot of flack for the script of ROTF and a lot more work has gone into the DOTM script. Even MB thinks ROTF was shit. I have been and always will be a TF fan and I watch all the forums and news and I have to say the new film is shaping up to be very good indeed IMHO.
Let’s take a moment and consider whether it is truly fair to judge the MB TF Universe on the strength of the ROTF film as it was undoubtedly better than anything we could do and was a good effort considering the circumstances.
THE MB TF Universe, as far as I am aware, is actually a co-operation with Hasbro to create a single TF Universe which could, one day, match the quality of the Star Trek and Star Wars universes. So what we are witnessing is the birth pangs of a whole new era for Transformers and I for one am absolutely pumped
Hmmm…. Dark Side of the Moon is to be released before too long… Do I smell an April fool’s prank?