Paramount have just announced the direction of the newest Transformers movie, going into the iconic follow-up Beast Wars. They were kind enough to invite us to a kickoff event for the upcoming title, though you won’t get to see anything from the movie for a while.

The movie’s title is Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. Rather than be a straight-up movie adaptation of Beast Wars, Rise of the Beasts takes place after Bumblebee, and will incorporate characters from the cartoon as they make their big screen debut.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts will release 24th June, 2022.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts Credits

Plot Details:

The movie will be set in 1994, and will revolve between two major locations, namely Brooklyn, New York as well as Machu Picchu in Peru. The significance of either place hasn’t been alaborated on, however director Steven Caple Jr says they chose the 90s because “It’s rich in texture and classic music”. On top of that, he also says “There’s a lot of grit that we can really make pop”.

While the movie will have a human cast similar to previous movies such as the museum researcher Elena (Fishback) and ex-military man Noah (Ramos), Caple says the movie would really focus on Optimums Prime, particularly establishing why he would later hold the Earth so dearly in the chronologically later movies.

Transformers Appearing In Rise Of The Beasts

Autobots

• Optimus Prime – From what we were shown Optimus is sporting a largely-unchanged look from his appearance in Bumblebee, with most of the major landmarks still there.
• Bumblebee- While we weren’t shown Bumblebee’s robot mode, his new vehicle mode is an offroad-modded Camaro, and Steven Caple Jr has said that the new additions would definitely appear as part of the yellow robot’s design.
• Mirage – While he was originally an F1 car in the cartoon, Mirage now sports a Porsche 911 design. His personality is described as being rebellious, and he takes on multiple forms in the movie.
• Arcee – Returning from her cameo in Bumblebee, Arcee transforms into a Ducati 916

Terrorcons

A new antagonist in the series, we weren’t told much about the Terrorcons. However, what we were shown is their leader, Scourge, as well as his second in command, Nightbird.

• Scourge– Leader of the Terrorcons, Scourge sports a head similar to his significantly-less-in-charge G1 counterpart. In the movie he steals the insignias of defeated robots, melting them down and wearing tem on his body. “We wanted to dabble more in horror, we wanted people to jump out of their seats”, Steven says.
• Nightbird – Described as a Mata Hari type, Nightbird has had a flaky history of swapping allegiances. Currently she serves as the second-in-command of the Terrorcons, and turns into a Nissan GTR.

Maximals

Making their big screen debut are the Maximals, protagonists of the Beast Wars cartoon. In the original Beast Wars they were Transformers from the future who got sent back to a prehistoric earth by accident, though we don’t know if the same still holds true here.

• Optimus Primal – Leader of the Maximals, Primal turns into a giant cybernetic gorilla with patches of fur all around him. He’s described as being in the same leadership role as Optimus Prime, and being someone who can talk to Prime on a more even level.
• Rhinox – Turning into a mechanical rhino, Rhinox is both the brains of the operation as well as the wrecking ball when things get tough.
• Airazor – Airazor turns into a mechanical bird, and is described as being a motherly figure for the Maximals.

For more news from Paramount Pictures, check out the new trailer for Snake Eyes along with character posters.