'Transformers: Last Knight' to Reboot Plot from '80s Cartoon

With King Arthur definitely appearing in Michael Bay’s Transformers: Last Knight, the robots in disguise seem to be returning to one of their more bizarre original episodes.

Somehow, King Arthur is going to figure into the plot of Last Knight and Liam Garrigan — who, bizarrely, already plays King Arthur on the ABC show, Once Upon a Time — has been cast in the role. While hardcore Transformers fans were already aware that the fabled wizard Merlin would figure into the plot of the next Transformers movie, the inclusion of King Arthur leads us toward the possibility of zany time-travel adventure. Which the Transformers have actually done before.

While the contemporary Transformers films are no strangers to totally absurd century-spanning premises, the original cartoon did send the everyone’s favorite giant robots back in time to 543 AD in the 1985 episode “”A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur’s Court.” This time travel occurs via a magical cave and results in Starscream mixing some potions Macbeth-style and some a few other Transfomers punching horses.

While it might seem like a stretch that Transformers: Last Knight is actually an adaptation of this old-school episode, the King Arthur detail is a little bit damning. When Michael Bay launched the franchise back in 2007, no one thought these films would ever include the Dinobots, but hey, that ended up happening, too.

No one has ever accused Transformers of being a remotely rational style of science fiction. Instead, since we could read the original series as very complicated commercials for some cool robot toys. Now, it seems like Transformers: Last Night might be trying to hit that sweet synergy of fake medieval sword toys AND contorted robots. Just don’t call it steampunk. Yet.