Next year, we’ll get our next dose of the Transformers franchise, and it’s looking promising so far: Ron Perlman has been cast as the voice of Optimus Primal in the upcoming Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. Collider reports that the Hellboy star will be portraying the fearless leader of the Maximals, reprising the role after appearing in the Transformers: Power of the Primes animated web series.
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts will be inspired by the Beast Wars stroyline, bringing characters like the Maximals, Predacons, and Terrorcons together with the Autobots and Decepticons. Unlike the robot-to-vehicle transformations of those latter Cybertronian factions, the Maximals, Predacons, and Terrorcons turn into animals. Optimus Primal’s form is that of a gorilla, and if you’re going to have someone voice a giant robotic primate, you won’t get much more spot-on than Perlman.
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts — a direct follow-up to the franchises last entry, 2018’s Bumblebee — is due to hit theaters on June 24, 2022. Its other stars will include Anthony Ramos (In the Heights) and Dominique Fishback (Judas and the Black Messiah) as human characters Noah and Elena, respectively. While we don’t have much more information on the film yet, you can stay tuned here for more as we hear it. (It appears that filming has not gotten in the way of Perlman’s fight with Ted Cruz.)
Related Video
Steven Caple Jr. (Creed II) is set to direct the latest Transformers installment, with Darnell Metayer, Josh Peters, and Joby Harold writing the script. Longtime Transformers director Michael Bay will produce it alongside Tom DeSanto, Don Murphy, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Mark Vahradian, and Duncan Henderson. Executive producers include Steven Spielberg, Hasbro’s Brian Goldner, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, Brian Oliver, Bradley J. Fischer, and Valerii An.
