Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback tease their characters appearing alongside Optimus Prime.
The Transformers franchise is ready to unleash the beasts.
During Paramount's virtual production kickoff event on Thursday, director Steven Caple Jr. (Creed II) revealed the title for the upcoming seventh film: Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, which will take on the beloved '90s toy and storyline Beast Wars.
"He's brought a new perspective to the franchise," franchise producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura said of Caple. "We want to deliver a film that has the scale and spectacle of the [Michael] Bay films with the heart and humor that we were able to achieve in [Bumblebee]."
Set in 1994 New York City, Rise of the Beasts will see the Autobots versus the Terrorcons, while the Maximals take on the Predacons. (Don't worry, although the battle between Autobots and Decepticons has been "somewhat exhausted" onscreen, there will be some Decepticons too.)
The roster of Autobots will be fronted by -- who else? -- Optimus Prime, in his Generation 1 form. Rise of the Beasts will explore who Prime is "underneath the metal" and how he becomes the leader we know him as. He'll be joined by Bumblebee (in off-road Camaro form), the rebellious speedster Mirage (a Porsche 911) and the "super tough and fierce" female Transformer Arcee (a Ducati motorcycle).
With Megatron sitting this one out, the villain of Rise of the Beats is Scourge, the ruthless leader of the Terrorcons and his ninja-like right-hand woman, Nightbird (now in Nissan GT-R form).
As for the titular Beasts, their leader is the wise Optimus Primal, who appears as a giant, rustic gorilla. He'll star alongside the rhinoceros-esque muscle of the group, Rhinox, and avian heart of the Maximals, Airazor.
No Transformers film is complete without a human cast, this time fronted by real-life New York natives Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback. The latter plays Elena, an artifacts researcher fighting to prove herself in her field, while Ramos stars as Noah, an ex-military electronics whiz and family man. The actor got his license literally two weeks ago just for this film.
"No one's ever seen a Transformers like this," Ramos said. "I read the script and almost threw it across the room... To intertwine these two worlds, of Brooklyn and New York with the Transformers, with these characters now, it's a recipe for some sh*t!"
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is set to hit theaters on June 24, 2022.
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