It’s been a minute since we’ve seen or heard anything from the set of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, the seventh installment in the franchise that’s been shooting since the beginning of June. There’s a little over nine months to go until the blockbuster hits theaters, and it’s arguably the most important outing for the Autobots and Decepticons yet.
Michael Bay’s pentalogy may have brought in billions at the box office, but reviews kept getting progressively worse, with takings dropping by over $500 million between Age of Extinction and The Last Knight. Meanwhile, Travis Knight’s Bumblebee scored the best reviews the series had ever seen, but made the least money.
Creed II director Steven Caple Jr. has made what could turn out to be an ingenious call by setting Rise of the Beasts in the 1990s, which places it in between Bumblebee and the Bay years. It’s still canon, but free to tell a brand new story that isn’t beholden to anything. As you can see from the clip below, Optimus Prime has gone retro with a new look inspired by Generation 1 Transformers.
Introducing the Beast Wars into the mix is going to get longtime fans even more invested in whatever the cast and crew are cooking up, and it should be enough to convince the skeptics that Transformers might yet have plenty of gas left in the tag. Rise of the Beasts is either going to mark the start of a brave new era or another nail in the coffin, and let’s hope that it’s the former.