Transformers: Rise of the Beasts Will Take Place In 1990s, Introduce Beast Wars

The next Transformers movie is Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and as the title suggests it will bring the Beast Wars to the big screen. Paramount Pictures hosted a virtual event on Wednesday and announced several details surrounding the upcoming seventh film in the franchise, which got its official title earlier this week. As JoBlo reports, the panel featured Lorenzo Bonaventura, director Steven Caple Jr., and stars Anthony Ramos and Dominque Fishback and revealed several details surrounding the film.

It was noted on the panel that the film will be set in 1994 and will feature Predacons, Maximals, and Terrorcons joining in on the existing conflict between Autobots and Decepticons. It will be set in Brooklyn, though part of the film will take place in Macchu Picchu in Peru. Peter Cullen will be back to voice Optimus Prime, who will be the lead Autobot, and Bumblebee will also be back after having is own 1980s-set adventure in the 2018 Bumblebee movie.

The two will be joined by new Autobots including Mirage, who will be a Porche in vehicle form and will have a close connection to “the human character” as the site puts it. There will be a female Autobot, Arcee, whose car form will be a Ducati 916 and is incredibly loyal to Optimus. Maximals include Airazor, Rhinox, and the leader, Optimus Primal, who is the groups’ “father figure” and shares values similar to Prime.

Ramos will be playing a character named Noah, who is from Brooklyn and living with his mother and little brother after a stint in the military. He is described as a father figure to his little brother and “trying to find his way” after returning from the military. He is an electronics genius with “a lot of heart and tenacity.” Fishback will be playing Elena, another Brooklynite character, who is a researcher of artifacts at a museum who is trying and failing to get ahead at work because her boss takes credit for her work.

Among the villains, who Terrorcons were revealed in Scourge – described as “ruthless and scary” — and Nightbird, a female Transformer whose car form is a Nissan GTR.

Bonaventura said that Caple Jr. was picked to direct because, according to the site, “he could capture the scope and spectacle of the Michael Bay films but he also could capture the humanity that Travis Knight excelled at with Bumblebee.” He said that Caple is coming to this film as a “true fan.” Caple said that the movie is influenced strongly by summer movies of the early 1990s, and it was noted that the film will have heart and humanity but will be more on the spectacle scale of the main franchise than the smaller scale of Bumblebee.

The movie is set to release on July 24th, 2022.