Why Scarlett Johansson's Elita Is Missing From All Transformers Movies

Summary Scarlett Johansson to voice Elita-One in 2024's Transformers One, a significant character in Optimus Prime's story since the 1980s.

Transformers One trailer showcases Elita-One as one of three characters to fight alongside Chris Hemsworth's Optimus Prime.

Elita-One's past appearances in comics and toylines set the stage for her role in Transformers One, a prequel to the series.

Despite missing out on all the live-action movies, Scarlet Johansson's Transformers One character is clearly a crucial part of Optimus Prime's story. For Paramount's 2024 animated Transformers movie, the MCU veteran will lend her voice to Elita-One, a character whose roots in the franchise go all the way back to the 1980s. As the Transformers One trailer confirms, Elita-One will be one of at least three characters to fight alongside Chris Hemsworth's Optimus Prime during his upcoming adventure on Cybertron.

Over the years, Elita-One has been featured in a number of Transformers comics, toylines, and animated projects, most notably the 1980s cartoon series. Due to her many appearances and status as Optimus Prime's love interest, there's quite a bit of lore surrounding her character and her connection to the franchise's central protagonist. But even though the movie franchise has been alive for 17 years now, it's going to take the release of Transformers One for the character to finally get her due on the big screen.

Related Why Optimus Prime Has A Different Name In 2024's New Transformers Movie Shown at CinemaCon 2024, footage from Transformers One confirms that Optimus Prime will be called Orion. His history explains the name change.

Why Elita-One Makes Perfect Sense For Transformers One, Despite Not Being Needed For The Other Movies

Any of Michael Bay's Transformers movies could have technically made room for Elita-One as an ally to Optimus Prime, but the films' focus has always been elsewhere. Typically, the attention goes to Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and Megatron, with the other Autobots and Decepticons often coming across as tertiary characters. Elita-One could have filled one of these roles, but Bay's movies prioritized other members of Optimus Prime's Autubots team, whether it be for the powers they brought to the table, designs, or other aspects of their characters. As for Elita, none of the movies had a need for her involvement.

Transformers One, however, is a very different case. The movie is essentially the Optimus Prime origin story the live-action movies never provided. While their events largely center around Earth and battles that have taken place after Orion Pax became Optimus Prime, Transformers One is dealing directly with his early days, a period in the Transformers timeline Elita has strong connections to. After all, she's Optimus Prime's main love interest and the character he was romantically involved with at the beginning of his story in multiple continuities, including the original cartoon.

Elita-One Is Credited With One Live-Action Movie Appearance (But It Doesn't Count)

While Transformers One is set to become her most high-profile appearance in Transformers media to date, it's worth noting that her name has been associated with one of the live-action films. One of the female Autobots in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is retroactively referred to as Elita-One. But not only does the design of the character scarcely resemble the traditional incarnation of the hero, it's a name that was only given to her by a tie-in comic, as the film never actually recognizes her as Elita-One.

That's likely for the best, though, considering that her limited role and quick death would be an insult to the classic character if the connection had been more overt. As for Transformers One's Elita, the marketing is a sure sign that the animated movie intends to do justice to the hero. As one of only four characters on the main team, Elita-One is in position to get her biggest share of the spotlight yet.