Back in June, filmmaker Michael Bay made the Twitter-verse aware of his plans to cast a Staffordshire Bull Terrier dubbed “The World’s Loneliest Dog” in Transformers: The Last Knight and find the dog a home. In the time since that announcement, the dog was indeed adopted, but Bay also appears to have found a new favorite actor in the epileptic canine named “Freya.”
Bay posted a brief video featuring Freya hard at work on the set of Transformers: The Last Knight alongside one of the film’s stars, Sir Anthony Hopkins.
A dog lover with several canine companions of his own, Bay learned of Freya’s plight — she had been passed over for adoption more than 18,000 times in her six-year life at an animal rescue center — from a British tabloid, and subsequently promised to cast her in The Last Knight and adopt her himself if no one else would do so. The dog was eventually adopted by a British couple, but Bay still followed through on his promise of giving Freya a role in his upcoming Transformers sequel.
Freya, has epilepsy and has been in a shelter her whole 6 year life.We are also going to find her a home. (2/3) pic.twitter.com/JVLXnvRTU8
— Michael Bay (@michaelbay) June 2, 2016
In the video, Freya can be seen walking around the grounds of what appears to be the castle home of Hopkins’ still-unidentified character. A tank-like vehicle can also be seen in several shots, but it’s unknown whether the massive vehicle is actually just a vehicle or a robot in disguise (and if so, which faction of robots: Autobots or Decepticons).
While it’s likely to be a small part for the canine actress, the ability to make her debut alongside an Academy Award winner isn’t too shabby.
So far, the robot cast of The Last Knight is confirmed to include returning Autobot characters Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Hound, and Drift, as well as Megatron and Barricade for the Decepticons. Newcomers include Hot Rod (who likely turns into a sports car of some sort) and Sqweeks (who turns into a Vespa) for the Autobots, and Onslaught (a green tow truck) for the Decepticons.
Bay returns as director of the Transformers sequel, with Mark Wahlberg reprising his Transformers: Age of Extinction role as Cade Yeager. Other returning human cast members include Josh Duhamel as Lt. Col. Lennox, and Tyrese Gibson as Robert Epps. Newcomers to the franchise in the upcoming installment include Hopkins, Isabela Moner (100 Things to Do Before High School, Growing Up Fisher), Jerrod Carmichael, Laura Haddock, and Santiago Cabrera.
Transformers: The Last Knight is scheduled to hit theaters June 23, 2017.
