It has been a little bit quiet on the Transformers: Rise of the Beasts front recently, but some new set footage has captured a very buffed Optimus Prime hurtling along the streets of New York and as pointed out by one of the users to tweet the footage, he is looking sleek. Rise of the Beasts brings Optimus Prime back to the heart of the Transformers franchise, after he sat on the sidelines for Bumblebee in 2018, and acts as a sequel to that movie as well as bringing in plotlines from the Beast Wars storyline. Peter Cullen will once again be voicing the leader of the Autobots and the new footage is the best look yet at Optimus in truck form sporting his classic red and blue colors.
New set footage of the new transformers movie #TransformersRiseoftheBeasts found. Optimus is looking sleek🚗🤖 pic.twitter.com/94crAgQTcm
— Cris Parker (@3CFilm) September 6, 2021
It is only a couple of months since the latest addition to the Transformers film franchise was announced, and there was a lot of buzz about the Bumblebee sequel, with director Steven Caple Jr giving just enough information to get fans of the 2018 installment, which changed direction from the previous movies, excited for the return of Optimus Prime as the main character.
“The main hero is Optimus, as we all know and love,” Caple Jr said in the press conference. “We’re bringing Prime back, paying direct homage to Generation One. I care so much about this character that I really wanted to dive into Transformers, and I saw a Bumblebee and I was like, okay, Bumblebee had his own movie, but I want to discover more about Optimus Prime, dig underneath the surface, get underneath the metal, if you would, and like explore who he is and his experience here on earth, you know? I know everyone has been asking like crazy, are we going, G1, are we going to G1? The answer is, yes, we are going to G1, the Prime.”
Rise of The Beasts will follow the timeline set in place by Bumblebee with a small jump to 1994 and acting as a prequel of sorts to the original Michael Bay movies. The story will see two humans become caught up in a conflict between three Transformers factions and as well as Cullen continuing his amazing near forty year run voicing Optimus Prime, the movie will feature Ron Pearlman as Optimus Primal. Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura addressed Cullen’s return previously, making it clear that as long as the actor wants to play the role, then the part is his. “Peter Cullen brought this character to life with his amazing voice back in 1984. Is he returning? Absolutely. There’s, there’s no discussion without him really, you know, unless he didn’t want it. That would be the only way he would not be in here.”
Some brief snippets of video and a couple of grainy photos were released back when filming started on the Transformers movie, but this new video is the best look that we have had at the G1 Prime coming to screens next year and it looks like being something special. Rise of The Beasts is slated to arrive in cinemas on June 24, 2022.