After Michael Bay’s decade-long tenure at the helm of the wildly successful and increasingly byzantine Transformers movies, the Bayformers are getting a soft reboot and finally going Beast Mode. The first trailer for Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is finally here, giving longtime Beast Wars fans the opportunity to stand up and cheer at the big screen versions of Optimus Primal, Cheetor, and all of their various friends and enemies.
As we learned last summer, Rise of the Beasts isn’t a straight adaptation of Beast Wars, but a movie that will bring some of its characters into the fold with franchise staples like Optimus and Bumblebee. And while no one is ruling out the Predacon villains from the animated series, the antagonists this time around will be the Terrorcons, a new threat created just for Rise of the Beasts.
While this might not be the big reset some Transformers fans may be hoping for, it looks to be fresh enough to woo back those who have lost interest. It’s hard not to feel fond about Beast Wars characters entering the fray, and new humans on both sides of the camera — in director Stephen Caple Jr. (Creed II) and stars Anthony Ramos (In the Heights) and Dominique Fishback (Judas and the Black Messiah) — make it feel like a bit of a creative reset too. Also check out those new Autobot designs. Very G1, yeah?
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is set to premiere in theaters on June 24, 2022.