Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

***Transformers: Rise of the Beasts*** is the seventh film in the live-action film series, serving as a sequel to *Bumblebee*. Originally expected to be released on June 28, 2019, the film was delayed due to creative differences. Was scheduled for release on June 24, 2022, but was delayed, the new release is on June 9, 2023. The film was praised for its action sequences, visual effects, performances, voice acting, and musical score.

## Summary

In the year 1994, seven years after the mute Bumblebee had befriended the human teenage female Charlene "Charlie" Watson, two humans from Brooklyn partner with Optimus Prime and the Autobots as they come into an ancient conflict that ties in with two more factions of Cybertronians other than the Autobots and Decepticons.

## Plot

The movie starts in the Maximal's home planet, where the planet-devouring Unicron plans to destroy the planet unless he gets the Transwarp key . The Maximal leader, Apelinq trying to escape the forest with the Transwarp Key. He soon meets the rest of the Maximals. Apelinq then makes his brother (Optimus Primal) , the leader of the maximal and gives him the Transwarp key. He then tells them to escape the planet. Apelinq then gets ready to fight. Unicron has sent his most powerful henchman, Scourge and his army of Predacon scorpions to obtain the key.

Apelinq fights of 2 of the predacon scorpions before meeting Scourge. Scourge then kills Apelinq at the same time the Maximals left the planet heading to Earth. Unicron then devours the Maximal's home planet.

## Cast

* Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen)
* Bumblebee
* Mirage (Pete Davidson)
* Arcee (Liza Koshy)
* Wheeljack/Pablo (Cristo Fernández)
* Stratosphere (John DiMaggio)

Maximals
* Optimus Primal (Ron Perlman)
* Airazor (Michelle Yeoh)
* Rhinox (David Sobolov)
* Cheetor (Tongayi Chirisa)
* Apelinq (David Sobolov)
* Scourge (Peter Dinklage)
* Nightbird (Michaela Jaé Rodriguez)
* Battletrap (David Sobolov)
* Freezer

Predacons
* Scorponok
* Elena Wallace (Dominique Fishback)
* Noah's mother (Luna Lauren Velez)
* Reek (Tobe Nwigwe)

## Quotes

### Quote 2

1. Optimus Prime: Stand down! (Transforms his arm into an arm cannon)
2. Optimus Primal: I'm not the one to fear Prime. There is a darkness coming. of all the threats from both your past and future. you've never faced anything like this.

### Quote 3

1. Policeman #1: PULL OVER!
2. Noah: I’m not driving!

### Quote 4

1. Elena: This can't be real, this can't be real.
2. (Arcee waves at Elena)
3. Elena: Okay, it's real.

## Confirmed information

* March 27, 2015 — Paramount Pictures negotiates with Akiva Goldsman, hiring him to create a "writer's room" with the intention of building a cinematic universe. Goldsman goes on to hire a number of writers over the next few months: Steven DeKnight (*Daredevil*), Robert Kirkman (*The Walking Dead*), Art Marcum and Matt Holloway (*Iron Man*), Christina Hodson (*Shut In*, *The Fugitive*), Lindsey Beer (*Dig*), Zak Penn (*Pacific Rim 2*), Jeff Pinkner (*The Amazing Spider-Man 2*, *Lost*), Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari (*Ant-Man*), Ken Nolan (*Black Hawk Down*), and Geneva Robertson-Dworet. Involved in the pitching process are Steven Spielberg, Michael Bay, Brian Goldner, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Mark Vahradian, and Don Murphy.
* October 3, 2015 — During his keynote speech at the MIP Junior Conference, Allspark's Stephen J. Davis notes that the writing team has come up with film concepts for Transformers 5, 6, 7, and 8.
* February 12, 2016 — At ToyFair, Hasbro reveals the projected release date of Transformers 7, along with the dates for the two preceding films.
* September 23, 2017 — At Licensing Europe 2017, Hasbro announces Transformers 7 will have an "entirely new, exciting storyline".
* February 16, 2018 — Hasbro clarified at Toy Fair 2018 that the film will be a reset of the franchise and has been delayed indefinitely until a new creative team is in place.
* May 24, 2018 — Paramount drops the film from their release schedule.
* March 15, 2019 — di Bonaventura states a sequel to *Bumblebee* is in development.
* March 18, 2019 — di Bonaventura claims that the next main *Transformers* film will be a reboot closely tied to the *Bumblebee* sequel, rather than a direct sequel to *The Last Knight*. Either way, Paramount will pick the best script for *Transformers 7* and release that first.
* January 27, 2020 — Variety reports two *Transformers* films are being penned, to be produced simultaneously: one written by James Vanderbilt, another to be written by Joby Harold. Deadline reports that Vanderbilt's script is for a spin-off film based on *Beast Wars*, while Harold's script continues the story from the *Bumblebee* film.
* May 2, 2020 — Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner confirms that a new Transformers live-action movie is slated to release on June 24th, 2022. However, only one between Harold's *Bumblebee* sequel and Vanderbilt's *Beast Wars* film will make it to production first.
* August 21, 2020 — New Republic Pictures is announced as a new co-financier for Paramount in a ten picture deal in the wake of the success of 2019's *Rocketman*.
* November 16, 2020 — Steven Caple Jr. is announced as the director.
* January 17, 2021 — Patrick Tatopoulos is revealed as the production designer. Harold's *Bumblebee* sequel script is chosen for the film.
* February 5, 2021 — The Illuminerdi reports that the working title for the film is "Transformers: Beast Alliance" and it will "have the flavor of a heist film".
* April 1, 2021 — Anthony Ramos is in talks for a starring role.
* April 29, 2021 — Dominique Fishback is in final negotiations to star in the film.
* June 22, 2021 — A Paramount virtual event was held in which the movie's title, premise, and few of the characters and cast were unveiled (revealing to be both the *Bumblebee* and *Beast Wars* films in one). The film's logo and official premise were unveiled on official Transformers social media accounts.
* June 28, 2021 — Ron Perlman is announced to be reprising his role as Optimus Primal from Power of the Primes. Darnell Metayer and Josh Peters are confirmed as writers, inspired by Joby Harold's earlier draft.
* July 11, 2021 — Rapper Tobe Nwigwe announces on Instagram that he's been cast in the movie.
* October 6, 2021 — Caple Jr. reveals the vehicle modes for the Autobot and Terrorcon cast through his Instagram account.
* October 20, 2021 — Filming is completed.
* October 21, 2021 — Cuscopolita reports on the vehicles with the film's Peru crew, confirming the unidentified vehicles as Wheeljack and Battletrap.
* October 22, 2021 — Ramos makes a guest appearance on Hasbro Pulse Con 2021, confirming Cheetor, his favorite Beast Wars character, will be in the film.
* November 10, 2021 — Paramount announces the film has been delayed to June 9, 2023.
* February 15, 2022 — Paramount confirms that Rise of the Beasts will be the first entry in a trilogy of films.
* October 11, 2022 — Caple Jr. reveals through Instagram that Pete Davidson is the voice of Mirage, and Michelle Yeoh is the voice of Airazor.
* October 21, 2022 — Tobe Nwigwe states on an Instagram post that they are doing some re-shoots for Rise of the Beasts, including featuring his character in additional scenes.
* December 1, 2022 — The official teaser trailer is released by Paramount Pictures in conjunction with São Paulo's CCXP convention, giving audiences a first glimpse of the film and its various characters, including Mirage, Arcee, Scourge and the Maximals. Multiple voice cast members are also announced.
* December 2, 2022 — Jongnic Bontemps is announced as the film's score composer.
* December 16, 2022 — Caple Jr. shares a clip of Peter Cullen performing on his Instagram account.
* December 26, 2022 — Optimus Prime and Optimus Primal make a "guest" appearance on the 2022 Nickelodeon Nickmas NFL game, showcasing both modes and their transformations.
* January 31, 2023 — Sam Smith reveals toy concept art for a new character from the film, Freezer.
* February 12, 2023 — Paramount airs a 30-second TV spot detailing Mirage's Porsche 911 vehicle mode for Super Bowl LVII in collaboration with Porsche.
* April 2, 2023 — During the 2023 NCAA Division I Men’s Final Four on CBS, Paramount aired a first-of-its-kind mixed reality TV spot that showed off Optimus Prime and Optimus Primal appearing on a 90s basketball court that transformed from the court the actual basketball match was being played on. A few brief clips from the first trailer were also shown.
* April 6, 2023 — Actor Tongayi Chirisa announces on Instagram that he is the voice of Cheetor.
* April 14, 2023 — To promote the film, Optimus Prime introduces Tobe Nwigwe's performance at Coachella.
* April 27, 2023 - The official trailer is released by Paramount Pictures, revealing more of the movie and Unicron's role in the plot, as well as delivering a first, brief look at the Predacons.
* May 6, 2023 - The first clip was showcased at the 2023 MTV Movie & TV Awards, showing the Autobots' first interaction with the Maximals.
* May 12, 2023 — The website Puliwood reveals the film's Hungarian dub cast...including the voice of Apelinq, a character that had not yet been announced to be appearing in the film.
* May 27, 2023 — The film's world premiere is held at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.
* June 5, 2023 — David Sobolov confirms on Instagram that he is also voicing Apelinq in the film.

## Trivia

* Rise of the Beasts is a direct sequel to 2018's Bumblebee film, taking place seven years after its events, in 1994. The plot of the film has little impact on this one, beyond it being established that the Autobots have been stranded on Earth since arriving at its end. While waiting for Noah to infiltrate the museum, Optimus Prime and Bumblebee have a conversation that alludes Bee's time with Charlie Watson.

* More notably, Rise of the Beasts serves to continue the heated debate among fans that Bumblebee began over whether or not the Transformers live-action film series has been rebooted, and is now ignoring the events of the five Michael Bay-directed movies. Promotion for the film has delivered a lot of fuzzy statements and mixed-messaging, but the film has been referred to (quite adamantly, on the part of producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura) as a prequel to the 2007 film several times. Either way, it's pretty clear the decision to set the film in 1994 was one primarily made to avoid having to directly deal with the timeframe of the Bay movies in any capacity.

* For what it's worth, the film takes some steps to preserve the broad continuity of at least the first Bay film; the Transwarp Key's energy is explicitly stated to operate on a frequency that humans cannot perceive, meaning that they literally cannot see the huge sky-beam or the portal. As such, the film ends with the general population of Earth (beyond secret forces within the US government) still entirely unaware of the Transformers' existence, as was the case when the 2007 film began. As the time-gap between these "prequels" and the first movie narrows, though, it becomes increasingly difficult to imagine them fitting together without a lot of hand-waving away of specific details, unless future movies actually start making active attempts to address this.

* In terms of active contradictions to established continuity, Rise of the Beasts appears to take the same approach as Bumblebee and ignores the events of the final Bay film, 2017's The Last Knight, by depicting Unicron as a separate planet, rather than the Earth itself, as he appeared in that film. However, it's probably important to note that the film lightly implies that the Maximals are time-travellers from the future, which would mean that the Unicron who appears in this film is also from the future. Thus it could be argued that his appearance here doesn't technically contradict The Last Knight—but of course, that would mean he was trying to eat his own past self.
* During the Final Scene of the movie, it is revealed that one of the next movies could be related to G.I. Joe, after Noah received a supposed Job offering from one of G.I. Joe’s workers/manager.

### Continuity Errors

There are also some Continuity Errors in the film.

* Arcee and Wheeljack both have distinctively different voices than in Bumblebee, Optimus Prime however still maintains his voice by Peter Cullen.
* Both Arcee and Wheeljack also are in new bodies without any Explanation.
* Brawn, Ratchet and Ironhide are never seen or mentioned.

## Gallery

### Promotional

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## Trailer

File:Transformers- Rise of the Beasts - Official Teaser Trailer (2023 Movie)

## Notes

* Decepticon Transit who was planned to appear early in ***Transformers: Rise of the Beasts***, dispatched from a Decepticon-controlled Cybertron to kill Optimus Prime, before himself being killed by Optimus and dumped into the Hudson River alongside numerous other Decepticons who have tried to do the same in the past few years. Steven Caple Jr. has indicated that the visual effects for much of the sequence were completed prior to its removal—a result of test audiences finding it too dark—and that he intends to release it as a deleted scene via the film's home media release or otherwise. The entertainment press has reported that Transit was voiced by John DiMaggio for his removed appearance in the film.
* None of the Autobots die in the movie, this is also the first time where no Autobots die.

### Foreign names

* *Japanese:* ***Transformers/Beast Kakusei*** (トランスフォーマー/ビースト覚醒 *Toransufōmā Bīsuto Kakusei*, "Transformers: Beast Awakening")
* German: ***Transformers: Aufstieg der Bestien*** (Transformers: Rise of the Beasts)

## References

1. ↑ One was this Decepticon scene, Transit, that I've been talking about, because Optimus Prime fights Transit at the beginning of the movie—or at least he *used* to—and you find out that Optimus Prime wants to go home. That's all he wants to do, and Cybertron's in deep trouble, and this guy Transit was telling him that "we're just here to kill you", AKA "Cybertron's already ours." And it was a really epic fight scene, and then you saw Optimus Prime dump his body in the Hudson River, and all these Decepticons are dead, and you see he's been hunting for the last few years. —Steven Caple Jr. in a Collider interview on Twitter, 2023/06/06
2. ↑ "Everything we know about Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" on Entertainment Weekly