Optimus Prime's New Design Was Just Spotted On The Set Of Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts
"Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" — the upcoming seventh installment in the consistently successful sci-fi action film franchise — is going back to the Transformers' roots. According to /Film, director Steven Caple Jr. grew up watching "Transformers" on TV and playing with the toys, so the franchise and its characters mean a lot to him personally. He especially loves Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots, and he says "Rise of the Beasts" will explore the origins of the franchise's noble robot hero more than any previous "Transformers" movie.
"The main hero is Optimus, as we all know and love," Caple said in a press conference previewing "Rise of the Beasts" earlier this year (via Comicbook.com). "We're bringing Prime back, paying direct homage to Generation One. I care so much about this character that I really wanted to dive into Transformers, and I saw 'Bumblebee,' and I was like, okay, Bumblebee had his own movie, but I want to discover more about Optimus Prime, dig underneath the surface, get underneath the metal, if you would, and like explore who he is and his experience here on Earth, you know?"
Now, new set footage from "Rise of the Beasts" shows exactly what Caple means by "paying homage to Generation One." Optimus Prime's new design is a throwback to how he looked in the '80s.
It's time for Optimus Prime to go back to the old him
TikTok user @arun09345 spotted Optimus Prime in truck form rolling through Brooklyn and snapped some footage which was shared on Twitter by YouTuber Cris Parker. In the brief video, a red and white semi-truck cruises down a dark street under elevated train tracks while the person filming says, "that's Optimus Prime right there." And it does really appear to be the Autobot leader because that's what he looked like in the toys, cartoons, and comic books of Generation One, which lasted from 1984 to 1990.
"Rise of the Beasts" is set in 1994, about a decade before Michael Bay's live-action "Transformers" series started, and will tell Optimus Prime's origin story as Earth's protector, according to Caple (via Comicbook.com). In the film, Optimus Prime has just arrived on Earth from Cybertron and doesn't have any connection to the planet or its people. So the film will show him forming that link, presumably through his relationships with humans Noah (Anthony Ramos) and Elena (Dominique Fishback). Since it's an origin story, it makes a lot of sense that he'd go back to his classic look. We can't wait to see him in all of his throwback, "Terminator 2"-inspired glory.
"Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" is scheduled to be released on June 24, 2022.