Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (film)

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So for now, let the battle be here, on this strange, primitive world. And let it be called... Beast Wars!

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

Production info Production companies Skydance Media Entertainment One di Bonaventura Pictures New Republic Pictures Bay Films Distributor Paramount Pictures Release date June 9, 2023 Story by Joby Harold Screenplay by Joby Harold Darnell Metayer Josh Peters Erich Hoeber Jon Hoeber Directed by Steven Caple Jr. Edited by Stuart Levy Brett M. Reed Cinematography by Enrique Chediak Music by Jongnic Bontemps Executive producer(s) Steven Spielberg Brian Goldner Brian Oliver Bradley J. Fischer Valerii An David Ellison Dana Goldberg Don Granger Continuity Live-action film series Running time 127 minutes Budget $200 million

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is the seventh film in the live-action film series, serving both as a sequel to Bumblebee and a tribute to Beast Wars. The film is directed by Steven Caple Jr. and written by Joby Harold, Darnell Metayer, Josh Peters, Erich Hoeber, and Jon Hoeber. Originally expected to be released on June 28, 2019, the film was delayed multiple times until finally being released on June 9, 2023.

Cast

Autobots / Maximals	Terrorcons / Predacons	Humans	Others
Autobots Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) Bumblebee Mirage (Pete Davidson) Arcee (Liza Koshy) Wheeljack (Cristo Fernández) Stratosphere (John DiMaggio) Maximals Optimus Primal (Ron Perlman) Airazor (Michelle Yeoh) Rhinox (David Sobolov) Cheetor (Tongayi Chirisa) Apelinq (David Sobolov)	Terrorcons Scourge (Peter Dinklage) Nightbird (Michaela Jaé Rodriguez) Battletrap (David Sobolov) Freezer Predacons Scorponok	Noah Diaz (Anthony Ramos) Elena Wallace (Dominique Fishback) Breanna Diaz (Luna Lauren Velez) Kris Diaz (Dean Scott Vasquez) Reek (Tobe Nwigwe) Jillian Robertson (Sarah Stiles) Bishop (Aidan Devine) Mrs. Greene (Leni Parker) Amaru (Lucas Huarancca) G.I. Joe Agent Burke (Michael Kelly)	Unicron (Colman Domingo)

Quotes

“You have such a beautiful world, filled with an abundance of life. Savor it.”

—Scourge to Apelinq

Noah: “Okay, what are the rules?”
Kris: Bros before Hos.

“I ain’t breaking into a museum for some space robots.”
“What about for friendship?”

-Noah and Mirage

Continuity notes

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; for instance, director Steven Caple Jr. stated only that it "felt like" a reboot in a December 2022 interview, then later, in a May 2023 interview, called it a "reboot for sure," only to moments later backpedal and instead call it a "refresher" and a "new direction," adding that you "could call it a reboot" but that there were still aspects of it that could be tied to the existing films. Producer and professional fandom hate-magnet Lorenzo di Bonaventura has repeatedly denied that it is a reboot, stating that the film shows how Optimus Prime grows to become the character seen in the Bay films, and many reviews of and articles about the film have casually referred to it as a prequel. Some web outlets would even run articles commenting on Paramount's indistinct stance on the movie's (and Bumblebee's) place in continuity.

Whichever approach you subscribe to, 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, and tell a new story free of their immediate baggage. 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 (see "Transformers references" for more details), 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.

Transformers references

• The Maximals are broadly depicted the same as they were in the Beast Wars cartoon: as a "highly-advanced race" of beast-mode Transformers who use transwarp technology to travel to other planets and interact with their native species, whose travels bring them to ancient Earth. Steven Caple Jr. has noted that earlier drafts of the screenplay explicitly depicted the Maximals as time-travellers from the future, as they were in the cartoon, and while the concept is so toned down for the finished movie that it probably won't even occur to general audiences, several references to the idea are still made on-screen. Transwarp technology is stated to open portals in time as well as space; Airazor states that the Maximals are "from both [the Autobots'] past and future"; and Optimus Primal says that he is named after the "legendary" Optimus Prime, which all combine to suggest that the Maximals originate from the future.
• The idea of the Maximals hailing from a jungle planet originates in IDW Publishing's comic books, which depicted many Beast Wars characters as the residents of the planet Eukaris. The planet is implied to be one of many colonised by Transformers in ages past using space bridges generated by the Transwarp Key, before the planets became separated and the key "lost." This concept of a great era of Cybertronian expansion that led to the foundation of lost colonies on other planets where Cybertronian life evolved in new and different directions dates back to 2005's Cybertron cartoon, and became a recurring element in Transformers series in the 2010s and beyond after it was incorporated into the lore of the Aligned continuity.
• Unicron's armies being named the "Terrorcons" hearkens back to both 2004's Energon and 2010's Prime, which both featured the power of Unicron being used to create armies of warriors known as Terrorcons.
• Though not identified by name onscreen, Unicron's army includes multiple generic duplicates of a robotic scorpion identified by the movie toyline as "Scorponok." Though not necessarily a reference, the idea of "Scorponok" being a kind of mass-produced "species" of robots has recently been seen in the War for Cybertron cartoon, where both Generation 1 Scorponok and Beast Wars Scorponok were treated this way.
• Scourge combines aspects of both Generation 1 Scourge and Robots in Disguise Scourge; he's a herald of Unicron like G1 Scourge, and transforms into a black truck like RID Scourge. The various insignia he wears as trophies include the symbols of the Decepticons, Autobots, Maximals, Predacons, Terrorcons, Mercenaries and Wreckers.
• The symbols Elena studies are Maximal Cybertronix, from the Beast Wars cartoon. They don't translate to anything specific; the access code Elena assembles simply reads "XQB."
• When proposing different alternate modes to Noah, Mirage briefly turns into an F1 car, a reference to his Generation 1 counterpart's alternate mode. He also turns into a Laborghini Countach, which was just a really cool, sexy car, but also famous in Transformers lore for being the alternate mode of Generation 1 Sideswipe.
• Mirage is incredulous over the news that musician Mark Wahlberg is leaving his band, the Funky Bunch, and going into acting—a good-natured jab at the actor's leading role in the earlier Transformers movies, Age of Extinction and The Last Knight.
• Scourge name-drops Primus as he taunts Optimus Prime, the first reference to the Transformers' creator god in any of the live-action movies.
• Airazor explains that Unicron imbues his heralds with a "dark energy," which increases his power, but also has a corrupting effect—almost certainly a reference to Dark Energon, the life-energy of Unicron introduced in the Aligned continuity.
• Unicron psychically tortures Scourge from afar in the same way he did Galvatron in The Transformers: The Movie.
• When Optimus Primal talks to Optimus Prime about how the Maximals trust the humans, he says there's "more to them than meets the eye" to them.
• In the final battle, when Unicron sends army of Freezers to reinforces his minions on Earth, they make their descent in the form of yellow-and-black orbs, which appears to be a nod to Unicron's Mini-Con from Armada, the yellow-and-black sphere, Dead End.
• In a glorious homage to the 2007 movie, the musical highlight of "Arrival to Earth" plays as Optimus, Noah, and Primal escape the collapsing transwarp portal's suction.
• G.I. Joe and Transformers have frequently crossed over in comics and the occasional toyline over the years, though this marks the first time the two have co-existed in a feature film. Notably, the G.I. Joe insignia on Burke's business card is the version introduced in the film G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

Real-life references

• A tv screen briefly shows news coverage of the O.J. Simpson white Ford Bronco car chase, which places the events of the film near June 17th, 1994.
• Throughout the film, Noah and Kris use the codenames "Sonic" and "Tails" (and in one instance, Mirage is referred to as "Knuckles"), a nod to the characters from the Sonic the Hedgehog videogame series.
• Kris wears a shirt of the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, another property owned by Hasbro. A poster of said series also appears on his wall.
• Kris is heard playing Super Mario Bros. on his Game Boy. However, see "Errors".
• Bumblebee drops various voice lines from famous real-life films throughout the whole movie, including Spaceballs and Scarface.
• Elena sings the TLC song "Waterfalls" to herself during the flight to Peru. However, see "Errors".
• When meeting Primal, Elena brings up the Nazca Lines, asking if the Maximals were responsible for creating them. In this case, however, Primal takes no credit for human ingenuity.
• Mirage calls Optimus Primal "Donkey Kong".
• At the end of the film, Elena appears on the CBS news program 60 Minutes; host Lesley Stahl makes a cameo appearance as herself during the segment.
• When he stands up after being fixed, Mirage quotes the line "I like it a lot" from Dumb and Dumber. However, see "Errors".

Errors

• When Scourge kills Apelinq, he welds his Maximal insignia to his right shoulder, but throughout the rest of the film, Apelinq's insignia was gone.
• Though the sound effects and mention of Bowser imply Kris is playing Super Mario Bros. on his Game Boy, that game wouldn't see a release on the system until 1999's Super Mario Bros. Deluxe on the Game Boy Color. The only Mario platformers released for Game Boy by that point were the Super Mario Land games, which featured different antagonists than Bowser.
• Elena sings "Waterfalls" to calm herself down. Assuming the film takes place in the summer, as implied by the aforementioned coverage of the O.J. Simpson chase, it would still be a few months until the November 1994 release of the album CrazySexyCool, which the song first appeared on.
• Similarly, Mirage quotes a line from Dumb and Dumber, a film that would not release until December of 1994.
• Transit was listed in the credits, despite his scene being cut from the theatrical release of the film due to test audiences reacting negatively to the dark tone.

Music

A score album, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (Music from the Motion Picture), was released alongside the film on June 9, 2023. Paramount also compiled a Spotify Playlist, Transformers Rise of the Beats, featuring songs that appeared in the film.

Development details

Why did it take so long?

• 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 Toy Fair 2016, 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 clarifies 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.

KARR NOT BIKE!

Actually, not the first time The Transformers meet Mad Max...

• 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 24, 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.
• 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 13, 2021 — A casting call sheet for filming in Montreal reveals that the film is set in 1992.
• June 22, 2021 — A Paramount virtual event is held in which the movie's title, premise, and few of the characters and cast are unveiled (revealing it to be both the Bumblebee and Beast Wars films in one). The film's logo and official premise are also 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 of "On My Soul" 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.

Changes before, during, and after production

• A Decepticon named Transit was a character who was planned to appear early in the film, 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. Despite not appearing in the final film, DiMaggio is still credited as Transit.

Notes

• In a first for the franchise, the lead human actors, multiple writers, the composer, and the director are all people of color.
• During the production of the film, Ramos had to acquire a driver's license at Caple Jr.'s behest.
• This is the first movie in the series not to be worked on by Industrial Light & Magic; this time around the CG effects were done by Moving Picture Company and WetaFX.
• During an interview with a fan, voice actor David Sobolov revealed that Caple Jr. would create storyboards using Transformers toys. Awesome!
• According to Caple Jr., Optimus's unmasked face was modeled after Peter Cullen's.
• As a result of Transit's removal, this is the first live-action film to not feature the Decepticons in any capacity.

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")
• Cantonese: Bin³jing⁴ Gam¹gong¹: Kwong⁴sau³ Gwat⁶hei² (變形金剛：狂獸崛起, "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts")
• French: Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (France), Transformers : Le Réveil des Bêtes (Canada, "Transformers: The Awakening of the Beasts")
• German: Transformers: Aufstieg der Bestien ("Transformers: Rise of the Beasts")
• Hungarian: Transformers: A fenevadak kora ("Transformers: The Age of the Beasts")
• Italian: Transformers: Il Risveglio ("Transformers: The Awakening")
• Mandarin: Biànxíng Jīngāng: Wàn Shòu Juéqǐ (Taiwan, 變形金剛：萬獸崛起, "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts"), Biànxíng Jīngāng: Chāonéng Yǒngshì Juéqǐ (Mainland China, 变形金刚：超能勇士崛起, "Transformers: Rise of the Beast Wars")
• Portuguese: Transformers: O Despertar das Feras (Brazil, "Transformers: The Awakening of the Beasts")
• Spanish: Transformers: El Despertar de las Bestias ("Transformers: The Awakening of the Beasts")
• Russian: Трансформеры: Восхождение Звероботов ("Transformers: Rise of the Beastbots")
• Ukrainian: Трансформери: Час Звіроботів ("Transformers: Time of the Beastbots")