Transformers is one of the most known media franchises nowadays. The Transformers brand began in 1984 with the homonymous line of mecha toys created by Hasbro, and it also spawned animated series, which increased the popularity of the franchise.
After five live-action movies directed by Michael Bay, out of which the last one — Transformers: The Last Knight — was panned by fans and critics and was a box-office bomb, Paramount Pictures decided to reboot the franchise. In 2018, the spin-off/prequel/soft reboot Bumblebee directed by Travis Knight was released and it seemed like the first step for the franchise to return to its more successful ways.
But, next year the franchise will finally have a true chance to revive itself with the first true Transformers movie not directed by Michael Bay. Creed II director Steven Caple Jr. was hired to helm this seventh installment of the movie franchise, which was also described as the sequel to Bumblebee.
As its title is saying, the movie will adapt a known storyline Beast Wars, and Paramount Pictures now released the first teaser trailer, and we are here to break it down! If you haven’t seen it already, you can check the teaser trailer down below:
Our world has transformed, but something else has awakened
This movie is promising to step away from Michael Bay’s way of handling this movie franchise, which is definitely something that this franchise needs if it wants to be successful again in critical and commercial ways. Still, the premise of one Transformers movie is pretty simple; it’s about a battle between good and bad robots that can transform into various electronic devices around us, primarily some sort of vehicle.
According to previous reports, the movie is set in 1994, and it will follow a pair of archaeologists who will find themselves in the middle of an ancient conflict that ties Autobots and three other factions of Transformers; the Maximals, the Predacons, and the Terrorcons.
The trailer first showed us Optimus Primal, the leader of the Maximals who can transform into some sort of mecha-gorilla. Optimus Primal is known as the main character of the Beast Wars storyline. And almost immediately after meeting him, we see the return of the most known Autobot — Optimus Prime!
Optimus Prime returns
Almost immediately after meeting Optimus Primal, we meet again the most known character in the entire Transformers media franchise — Optimus Prime. Peter Cullen returns once again to voice this legendary character who is ready to face Optimus Primal, but Primal warns Prime about a new threat that’s coming.
From what we can see in the trailer, Optimus Prime looks very different from what we used to see him in Michael Bay’s movies, but on the other hand, he looks very much like Optimus Prime from the animated series we all know and love. If you ask us, this change of look for Optimus is well-appreciated. And with Peter Cullen back with his iconic Optimus Prime voice, what more could a Transformers fan ask for?
Bumblebee returns
Optimus Prime is the leader of the Autobots, but if he’s the most popular Transformer, we can say that Bumblebee is the most loved one. An adorable robot who can transform into a yellow Chevrolet Camaro has always been a vital character of the franchise. He received his own spin-off movie in 2018, and now he’s returning because, let’s face it, you can’t have a Transformers movie without Bumblebee.
Other Autobots
This teaser trailer didn’t reveal much about the movie’s plot, but it gave its best to give us the proper look at the main characters. Optimus Prime and Bumblebee and without a doubt the most-known Autobots, but this movie will feature a few more Transformers that are on the side of good.
The fans of the franchise know that the team Autobots had many members, and in this movie, we will meet at least three more of them. Mirage, an Autobot spy who can transform into a silver-blue Porche 964, and also has some cool ability to duplicate itself, as one of the scenes from the trailer showed us.
The other two Autobots are Arcee, a female Autobot commando who can transform into a red-white Ducati 916 motorcycle, and Wheeljack, a scientist and mechanic who can transform into a 1970s Volkswagen Type 2 bus.
The war is coming
Despite some of them having messy scripts, Transformers movies have always known how to deliver impressive action sequences. Even though this movie promises to be a new start for the Transformers movie series, when you’re making this kind of movie, you can’t escape from some typical Michael Bayisms. You know what are we talking about. Explosions. Lots and lots of explosions!
The climax of the trailer gave us a short glimpse at what seems to be the main battle of the movie. We can’t tell who’s on which side and what events will lead to that showdown, but one thing is for sure, the action sequences in this movie will be massive, and we cannot wait to experience it on the silver screen.
Oh yeah, there are some human characters in this movie too
The teaser trailer gave us a pretty good look at what to expect from the upcoming movie, its main characters — robots — and action sequences. Still, let’s not forget there are some human characters in this movie too. We have previously mentioned that the movie will follow two archaeologists whose paths will cross with the path of Transformers. Those archaeologists are Noah and Elena, who are played by Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback, respectively.
Not much is known about their role in the movie since the trailer mainly focused on showing us the characters made out of metal. Still, whatever their role is, we know we are all going to watch the Transformers movie for, you guessed it, Transformers!
The Transformers franchise was first adapted to the big screen in 2007 with the original Transformers movie directed by Michael Bay and starring Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox. The movie was well received by fans and it was commercially very successful. It was followed by four sequels, out of which the last two — Age of Extinction and The Last Knight — featured Mark Wahlberg in the main role instead of LaBeouf.
In 2014, Transformers: Age of Extinction received negative reviews but it grossed over a billion dollars, which led to 2017’s Transformers: The Last Knight, which was a critical and commercial failure. That was a red flag for Paramount that some things needed to be changed about this franchise. Bumblebee was a good first step, but this next movie will be the answer to our question: Can the Transformers movie series be saved?
There are more Transformers movies planned after this one, but it all depends on how well this movie will be received; critically, and far more importantly, commercially.
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is set to be released on June 9, 2023.
