The next “Transformers” movie will be the 7th in the live-action franchise and we officially have a name for it. While a title may not seem like interesting news, in this case it has some significant impact on what fans should expect, as it ties into a beloved “Transformers” property that has never had the big screen treatment. Get ready to “maximize” as we prepare for “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.”
The “Transformers” film franchise is a divisive one to say the least. Despite terrible critical reviews that just kept getting worse from film to film, the money kept coming in bigger and bigger sums. Then came the fifth film, “Trasnformers: The Last Knight” and the commercial performance was disappointing enough to cause the franchise to shift gears. In 2018, Michael Bay surrendered the director’s chair and “Bumblebee” was released. For the first time, the franchise actually received glowing reviews, but the lowest box office gross of any previous film.
A press conference was held for the film, and revealed the story will be set in 1994. Steven Caple Jr. (“Creed II“) will be directing, with Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback starring. It will feature Autobots Optimus Prime and Bumblebee alongside the Maximals Airazor, Rhinox, and Optimus Primal.
Alongside the release of “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” plans were put in place to try and reinvent the image of the series. A “Bumblebee” sequel was announced. In addition to other major films, Netflix’s “Transformers: War for Cybertron” will also be crossing over with “Beast Wars” in the final installment of that series.
“Beast Wars” ran as an animated cartoon series from 1996 – 1999 and is highly regard amongst fans for its increasinly mature storylines, characterizations, and tie-in lore to the original “Transofmers” series. While there’s no note yet about what Predacons will be showing up, the series did have its own Tyrannosaurus version of Megatron in addition to fan favorites, Waspinator and Tarantulus. With a wealth of characters to choose from, it’ll be interesting to see where the film goes with this material to draw on.
Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura said during the press conference:
“One of the most important things we were trying to do with this movie was give the audience a lot of new. Our hope was how do we find a new set of villains and priorities … saving the world is left to the Autobots and the Maximals. If you’ve seen and been a fan of the other movies, you’re gonna see villains you’ve never seen before, Autobots you’ve never seen before … Fortunately for us, Transformers has a lot of tribes and there’s a really large base of characters and fans that relate to different tribes. This movie is bringing a lot of these tribes together.”
“Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” will be hitting theaters approximately one year from now on June 24th, 2022.
