Warning: SPOILERS for Transformers: The Last Knight are ahead!
The Transformers franchise is on its fifth movie, which means it's all the more important to provide audiences with fresh material rather than just rehash what's been shown in the previous four movies. In Transformers: The Last Knight, one of the ways this is being accomplished is by infusing King Arthur mythology into the story. Hey, when you have Knight in the title, it's generally assumed that there will be a medieval theme of some kind. Still, a big question that's been on fan minds is who this "Last Knight" is, and while many might have guessed that it was the benevolent Optimus Prime (after all, he is wielding a sword), it's actually a human that will hold the title: Mark Wahlberg's Cade Yeager.
Our own Eric Eisenberg was at the Transformers: The Last Knight presentation at CinemaCon when 20-25 minutes of footage was screened, during which the identity of the Last Knight was revealed to be Cade Yeager, who made his first Transformers appearance in 2014's Transformers: Age of Extinction. Among the scenes shown was Cade finding a strange-looking medallion from a dying Transformer. As it turns out, this medallion is a seal left behind by King Arthur, and Cade has been "chosen" to wield its power (as evidenced by how the seal at some point transforms and starts wrapping itself along his arm) and foster peace between humanity and the Transformers. The footage also included a quick history lesson, where it was revealed that during the time of Arthur's reign, along with the 12 Knights of the Round Table, there were 12 Transformers who fought alongside them. Centuries later, now Cade has been tasked with re-establishing peace between the two races because it is his destiny.
We've known for months that Transformers: The Last Knight would have some kind of medieval/Arthurian connection, but aside from the shots from the December trailer that included knights in battle and a couple of Transformer dragons, it was unclear exactly how these events tied into the present day storyline. Today's CinemaCon footage clarified quite a bit, as we now know that the Cade is the Last Knight in question, and that he's the one who will (ideally) end the conflict between humanity and the robots in disguise, which has ravaged Earth following the events of Age of Extinction.
It's unclear whether this seal from Arthur will grant Cade special powers or not, though since this is a franchise that revolves around giant mechanical aliens beating each other up, even if he does gain abilities, he'd be wise to stand out of the way of these brawls. Well, now we have a lot more background on how Transformers: The Last Knight is leaning on the legend of King Arthur, and while we wait for the full movie to come out to learn the whole story, there's a new question on our minds: what's the deal with those World War II scenes?
Transformers: The Last Knight hits theaters on June 23.
There's a LOT more about The Last Knight that hasn't been revealed. We dig into ALL of it right here.
