Travis Knight’s Bumblebee, the Transformers spinoff movie about the beloved yellow racer, will open theatrically stateside on Dec. 21, 2018. The Paramount pic literally started production today and will be entirely shot in the state of California.

Originally Bumblebee occupied a slot on next June’s calendar, June 8, but will now battle Warner Bros. Aquaman on its new date. Big tentpoles on what will be a big five-day Christmas stretch. The Transformers franchise has grown long in the tooth and is in need of a major reboot, which is the hope here with Bumblebee: This summer’s Transformers: The Last Knight ranks as the lowest in the five pic franchise with $128.8M stateside, and close to $570M worldwide. The last two titles in the series, Age of Extinction and Dark of the Moon cleared $1.1 billion worldwide.

Bumblebee, penned by Christina Hodson, stars Hailee Steinfeld, Pamela Adlon, John Cena, Stephen Schneider, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Jason Drucker, Kenneth Choi, Ricardo Hoyos, Abby Quinn, Rachel Crow and Grace Dzienny. Pic is set in 1987, where we find Bumblebee refuged in a junkyard in a small Californian beach town. Charlie (Steinfeld), on the cusp of turning 18 and trying to find her place in the world, discovers Bumblebee, battle-scarred and broken. When Charlie revives him, she quickly learns this is no ordinary, yellow VW bug.

Pic is produced by the franchise’s vets Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Michael Bay, along with EPs Steven Spielberg, Brian Goldner and Mark Vahradian. Chris Brigham will also executive produce.