The Transformers film franchise was once a massive cinematic juggernaut, but ever since Michael Bay decided to move on, the series has clearly been directionless. The new film Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, is looking to breath new life into the series, and fans will be excited to know that the movie is now one step closer to becoming a reality as filming has now wrapped. And director Steven Caple Jr. celebrated the milestone in the best possible way.
The announcement that filming has wrapped on Transformers: Rise of the Beasts came via the Instagram account of the director. Along with the news is the perfect shot that any Transformers fan is going to want to take. Caple is sitting in the cab of Optimus Prime.
Is there even another way to announce that a new Transformers movie is on the way? Anybody who even likes the Transformers even a little bit is going to take the opportunity to get a picture driving Optimus Prime.
The first five Transformers movies weren’t exactly critical darlings but they did make giant piles of cash at the global box office, with more than one of them crossing the billion dark mark worldwide. This was followed, after the departure of Michael Bay, by Bumblebee, a film which many critics did actually like, but that didn’t do nearly the box office business of previous installments.
Clearly, what the Transformers movies would like to be is a combination of the two, and maybe Transformers: Rise of the Beasts will be that. The title alone, and its connection to the popular Beast Wars corner of the franchise, would seem to indicate a plan to start more or less fresh.
Rise of the Beasts isn’t a reboot, not directly anyway. It’s set in 1994 and will include characters like Bumblebee and (obviously) Optimus Prime, so it would seem the new movie will fit into the, increasingly confusing, continuity of the previous films. This will set the films in between the ‘80s themed Bumblebee and the rest of the franchise.
While these classic Transformers will appear, the focus, based on the title, will be the Beast Wars characters. The great Ron Perlman will voice Optimus Primal for Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and several other characters familiar to Beast Wars fans have also been confirmed. In the Heights star Anthony Ramos will play one of the lead human characters.
By introducing a bunch of brand new characters, if this movie is the success everybody is looking for, we could see a new franchise born here. Considering that Beast Wars was a popular animated series that gave fresh life to Transformers following the success of the ‘80s cartoon series, it’s possible that this is exactly what the big screen needs as well. We’ll find out when Transformers: Rise of the Beasts arrives next June.
