The title of the upcoming seventh live-action Transformers film is Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts, revealed director Steven Caple Jr at the Transformers Production Kickoff virtual press conference.
In the film, there will be “prehistoric animals, who travel through time and space who arrive on Earth,” said Caple.
A new group of villains, the Terrorcons, will feature in the film. “Terrorcons are a threat in this universe, to Optimus Prime. They’re more reptilian in nature,” said the director. They will be led by the bestial, smokey villain Scourge.
In the original 1984 series, the Terrorcons were the name of an evil Decepticon subgroup. The five Terrorcons transformed into monsters, and they could combine to form an even bigger Decepticon called Abominus.
For Caple, it is about building a backstory to these characters. It will be about Predacons vs Maximals, and Terrorcons vs Autobots.
In Transformers lore, Predacons are a faction of evil Transformers who transform into predatory animals and creatures; while Maximals are a faction of good Transformers who transform into mammals and other creatures. They were the primary factions in the 1996 series, Beast Wars: Transformers.
“We exhausted the battle between the Autobots and Decepticons,” producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura explained about the decision to introduce the Terrorcons, “We’re going to see Autobots and villains that we have never seen before.”
The film sees the return of Optimus Prime as the main character. He will retain his classic design from the Bumblebee movie, with some changes. “We are going G1 with Optimus Prime,” said Caple, which implies that the character design of the leader of the Autobots will adhere closely to that of the first generation of the toy and film series.
Peter Cullen will return to voice Optimus Prime.
Other Autobots that will appear include Bumblebee, Mirage (a race car), and Arcee (a female Autobot who appeared in the Bumblebee movie).
The Maximal faction includes leader Optimus Primal (who is not Optimus Prime) who transforms into a gorilla, Rhinox who transforms into a rhino, and Airrazor who transforms into a bird.
Opposing them are Scourge and Nightbird, a female Transformer who transforms into a car.
The film will star Dominique Fishback, who plays an artefact researcher named Elena, and Anthony Ramos, who plays a Brooklyn boy named Noah.
Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts is slated to hit theatres in 2022.
This article was written for and first published on Yahoo Lifestyle SEA.
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