‘Transformers: One’ Writer Eric Pearson Was Surprised by That ‘Key & Peele’ Ad-lib

[This story contains spoilers for Transformers: One.]

For the past decade, Eric Pearson has been a go-to writer for Marvel Studios, penning hits such as Thor: Ragnarok and Black Widow — and writing upcoming features such as Thunderbolts* and Fantastic Four: First Steps. Along the way, he’s taking forays into other franchises, such as Godzilla vs. Kong, and most recently, he stepped into another storied universe with Transformers: One.

The animated feature tells how two best friends Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth)and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry) became mortal enemies known as Optimus Prime and Megatron.

Pearson spent weeks on the Paramount lot in a conference room near director Josh Cooley, working from an earlier script from fellow scribes Andrew Barrer Gabriel Ferrari. Among other things, Pearson focused on crafting an opening that made an exposition-heavy scene go down smooth, and took pride in pushing the limits of a PG rating.

One memorable scene introduced B (Keegan-Michael Key), a bot who has been working in isolution, with only a few “friends” for company. (They are actually inanimate piles of junk). Pearson named one of these friends Steve, because in a world of crazy bot names, the idea of a normal human name tickled the writer. The other was named EP-508 — Pearson’s initials, plus the Massachusetts area code where he grew up.

But little did Pearson know, Key would one-up these references with an ad-lib. While recording, Key called back to a popular sketch on his Comedy Central show Key & Peele, in which he played a substitute teacher who cannot pronounce the names of his students. One student, Aaron, was famously called A-aron by Key’s character, Mr. Garvey. More than a decade after A-aron became a breakout, Key named one of B’s bot pals A-atron.

“A-atron was a hundred percent him,” says Pearson. “He snuck A-atron in there, and I was like, ‘Well, that beats both my Easter egg and my joke.’ He nailed it. It was a perfect.”

Pearson is currently in Los Angeles, working on the script for Marvel’s Blade, but took a break to delve into his Transformers: One process, and share his thoughts on becoming one of the few Marvel writers to have two movies release in a single year, with next summer’s Thunderbolts* and Fantastic Four: First Steps.

When did you join the Transformers: One, and what pieces were already in place?

It was late middle of the game. They had a script that had the outline of the story, which is still very much the structural bones of the story now. But what I found interesting about animation is there are certain things that were far along in the process. The train escape to the surface was very far along, so that was just kind of locked. Maybe you could change a line here or there. Meanwhile, the opening, the whole first 10 minutes, was all storyboards and sketches, which changed a bunch of times.  

Josh Cooley has said there were versions of the movie where the audience agrees with D-16 the whole movie, and you all had to pull back from that. You can’t end the movie totally agreeing with him. Was that one of your challenges?

That might’ve been my fault. I loved D-16 from the beginning. Orion has the hero’s arc, but D-16, I just understood where he was coming from. Part of what I was doing was making sense of this world, so it didn’t just seem like a slave colony under Sentinel Prime. My first goal was to flesh out and understand what kind of carrots he’s dangling in front of these people to make them work. D-16 is a rule follower. I can vibe with that. I like the idea of set rules, and we’re all going to play by those rules, and nothing makes me angrier than when I’ve been playing the game, following the rules, and then I realized that someone else has been cheating or that the rules aren’t fair.

You definitely feel for him.

I was really appreciative of how kind of dark Josh went with him, too. I remember writing that line, “No, I want to kill him.” Just when you start to see the red creep into the orange of his eyes. It’s kind of chilling. I love that they went there. Those moments feel not like a PG kids movie. I remember when I was a kid, I’d see things, and they’d be PG  — and they’d say things or do things that it felt like I wasn’t supposed to see, and it made me look even more.

Were your pals Scarlett Johansson and Chris Hemsworth already on board when you were writing this, or did they come on later?

Scarlett came on after, and I think they were courting him at the time. I never actually spoke to Scarlett directly about this, but I got her the draft. Hemsworth and I had a discussion or two just about the character. It was a tricky balance to make sure that he was cool and didn’t seem like he just had blind faith, that he had a belief that was based in something. I was just amazed when he got to his Optimus Prime voice.

Yeah, it sounded like old school Transformers.

I feel like the one that they give him at the end is him going like 75 percent. There was another version that I first heard, and I thought it was (original Optimus Prime) Peter Cullen. I was like, “Oh, you’re giving me the test here.” I was like, “Now play Chris’ version.” They’re like, “No, that’s his.”

As an Aaron, I appreciated the A-atron joke. Did Keegan throw that in?

A-atron was a hundred percent him. My big joke of that whole sequence was Steve, I just loved Steve. I love the idea that an alien name for robots is our most normal name. And the other name that they say is EP 5-0-8, which is my initials in the area code of where my home phone. But then he snuck A-atron in there, I was like, “Well, that beats both my Easter egg and my joke.” He nailed it. It was a perfect.

How did you handle the exposition at the beginning? There’s a lot of hardcore Transformers vocabulary.

There are so many big words you have to teach an unfamiliar audience. Cybertron, Energon, The Matrix of Leadership. I remember at one point I said, “Can I change the name of some of these things?” And they said, “Absolutely not.” (Laughs.) We had to tell people what they needed, but not tell them so much that they’re bored and get disinterested. It took a lot of work to get that balance.

Is Hasbro giving you binders of back material like they do at Marvel?

No, since they had a script that outlined the story that they wanted to tell. I knew Optimus Prime and Megatron and I knew Bumblebee as well, or B. I had to ask about some of the other deeper ones, the mythology, “what exactly is the Matrix of Leadership?” Stuff like that.

I think many people have experienced a Sentinel Prime — maybe it’s a teacher or a boss or a friend of a friend. Someone who is charming but isn’t actually as nice as they seem.

One of the first things that I did was a big pass on Sentinel Prime. I just felt like he was too obviously telegraphing his wickedness in previous versions, and I felt like, “No, he’s a carnival barker.” He’s got to be a big salesman. He’s a bullshitter, honestly is what he is. And then Jon Hamm’s readings of everything were kind of exactly as I imagine them.

Next summer, you will be one of the only Marvel Studios writers to have two films in a single year, with Thunderbolts* and Fantastic Four: First Steps. Was revisiting Yelena and Alexi like reuniting with old friends for Thunderbolts* after Black Widow?

It’s a team movie, but for me, I needed a way in, and the way in was Yelena. You could argue Tony and or Steve are the way in for Avengers 1. Everyone has their whole story, their moment, and I think they all have really cool arcs and relationship, but having Yelena be the way to go in [was important]. In my mind, she just comes with Alexi, who is the perfect foil for well-meaning support that is often clumsy and dundering, but then is just right at the exact moment you need it. So being able to pick up with that, write, for those voices again, it is a fun dynamic.  … Yelena’s mindset, where she is in her life, is the emotional drive for the movie. 

Are you the onset writer on Fantastic Four or are you back home?

No, they are in London now. I’m still in L.A. From everything I hear, it’s going great. Kevin (Feige) emailed me a picture of a prop that I invented. It made me very happy. I can’t tell you what it is, but it is as stupid as you can imagine.