'Transformers: The Last Knight' Reveals New Image Of Hot Rod And Details On The Autobot

The most recent trailer for Transformers: The Last Knight showed off plenty from the sequel that is supposed to be the last installment of the franchise directed by Michael Bay. However, one character that we still haven't seen much of is Hot Rod.

The Autobot has origins going all the way back to the 1986 animated movie when he was granted the Matrix of Leadership and became Rodimus Prime in the wake of the death of Optimus Prime. We're not likely to see that same story unfold on the big screen, if only because it was a storyline that fans hated, but Hot Rod will still play a key role in the sequel.

A new image of Hot Rod in Transformers The Last Knight has emerged online along with a slew of details explaining what role the Autobot plays in the story. It turns out that he has played quite a pivotal role in the life of one of our new human characters. Find out more below.

Entertainment Weekly debuted the following image as part of their summer movie preview:

As you can see, this is the Autobot form of Hot Rod, which we've seen before. But this is the first time we've seen the character in a still from the movie. So what's happening in this scene?

First, let's set the stage with some details about the story. The sequel sees Mark Wahlberg connecting with Anthony Hopkins, playing an astronomer named Sir Edmund Burton. With the help of Hot Rod, the astronomer has discovered a long-lost connection between Transformers and humans that stretches all the way back to the medieval times of King Arthur. It's this connection that leads them to an Oxford professor named Viviane Wembly (Laura Haddock, seen above with Hot Rod), whose expertise is English literature.

In the image above, Wembly has just discovered that her father's car, a 1963 Citroen DS, has been an Autobot tasked with secretly protecting and monitoring her. At first, Wembly loses her mind, like any reasonable human probably would after discovering their car was a sentient robot. But surely she'll end up chilling out and going with the flow, especially when she learns that her blood holds a genetic secret that has the potential to either destroy or save the world.

What's interesting though is that the Autobot version of Hot Rod seen above is the result of transforming from the vehicle form of a Lamborghini Centenario (seen above). That means at some point before revealing himself to Wembly, Hot Rod scans another vehicle to take on a new automobile form. You can't blame him since Laura Haddock describes her father's old car as a "rickety old thing," so he was overdue for an upgrade. We've seen the car speeding around in a couple quick shots in the trailers so far, but that's about it.

As for who is voicing Hot Rod, that's a detail that hasn't quite been worked out yet. Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura says they're still trying to figure it out. Judd Nelson voiced Hot Rod back in the 1980s, but the hope is to get an overseas movie star to voice the Autobot this time, though no specific names are mentioned as possibilities.

Fun Fact: Hot Rod takes over the Matrix of Leadership in Transformers: The Movie to the song "The Touch." That just so happens to be the song that Mark Wahlberg's character Dirk Diggler sings in a recording booth (rather poorly) in a sequence from Boogie Nights. There's been no indication that the song will be used in the movie, but if there's not at least a passing reference to this connection, then it would be a huge missed opportunity.

Transformers: The Last Knight arrives on June 23.