Recently, during a big press event, Paramount revealed the next “Transformers” film in the franchise would be the ‘90s-set “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” which would combine the Robots in Disguise that we’ve come to know and (not really) love through Michael Bay’s long-running franchise with the “Beast Wars” franchise that saw the Autobots and Decepticons take on the forms of animals when they, uh, transform. Well, with new Transformers debuting, Paramount needs new voice actors, and apparently, the studio has found the voice that will lead them all—Ron Perlman.
READ MORE: Paramount Unveils ‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’ Coming Summer 2022 At Virtual Event
According to Collider, Paramount has signed on Ron Perlman to voice Optimus Primal in the forthcoming ‘Rise of the Beasts.’ Yes, you read that right—Optimus Primal, not Optimus Prime. Optimus Primal the leader of the Maximals, aka the ‘Beast Wars’ equivalent of the Autobots. In the film, the Maximals, the Predacons (bad robots), and the Terrorcons (badder robots) will join the already-raging war between the Autobots and the Decepticons for the fate of the world. Though Perlman won’t actually be seen on screen, his voice will be a prominent part of ‘Beasts.’ He joins a cast that includes human actors Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback.
The new film sees the franchise debut of director Stephen Caple, Jr, of “Creed II” fame. He takes over in a franchise that has been mainly spearheaded by Michael Bay, who directed five of the “Transformers” features. The most recent film, however, came from Travis Knight,” who directed the ‘80s-set prequel, “Bumblebee,” which showed the franchise could actually thrive without the influence of Bay.
Filming on ‘Rise of the Beasts’ is expected to begin very soon, as the release date for the feature is already set for June 24, 2022. As mentioned, it marks the first film in the ‘Transformers’ franchise since 2018 and it’s clearly a film that will help shepherd in a new era for the film series.
