The Transformers movies have never really given Bumblebee a voice, preferring to let him talk through his car radio. With the prequel film Bumblebee, that’ll be changing, as the lead Autobot will be voiced by Dylan O’Brien.

In an interview with IGN, producer Lorzeno di Bonaventura revealed the Maze Runner star’s inclusion. The creative team felt that, due to it being a prequel, it was “appropriate that you got to hear his voice ... since we really are resetting the mythology, essentially, of who Bumblebee is. And so, that seemed to us to be the appropriate, to get the chance to hear what he sounds like."

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Set decades before the original films, the movie will explore Bumblebee’s time as a car owned by a teenager named Charlie in the 1980s. After the film's humans are duped into believing he’s a Decepticon by actual Decepticons, Bee and Charlie have to rely on each other to survive.

O’Brien has been acting for years, most notably as Stiles on MTV’s Teen Wolf. After taking a break from acting due to an injury while filming Maze Runner: The Death Cure, he returned to acting with both Bumblebee and American Assassin.

Directed by Travis Knight (Kubo and the Two Strings) from a script by Christina Hodson (Birds of Prey), Bumblebee stars Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena, Dylan O’Brien, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Pamela Adlon, Jason Drucker, Abby Quinn, Rachel Crow, Ricardo Hoyos and Gracie Dzienny. The film arrives on Dec. 21.