Transformers: Rise of the Beasts director Steven Caple Jr. teases how Optimus Prime changes in the upcoming sequel, including his conflict with Optimus Primal. The seventh live-action movie in the Transformers franchise, Caple Jr.’s new film serves as a loose sequel to 2018’s Bumblebee. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts draws from the popular Beast Wars storyline, introducing new factions including the Maximals, the Predacons, and the Terrorcons into Optimus Prime and the Autobot’s fight against the Decepticons.
Ahead of the Transformers: Rise of the Beasts release date next month, Caple Jr. shares more details regarding Optimus Prime’s arc in a recent interview with SFX magazine (via GamesRadar). The director teases that the film will present a version of Optimus who is not yet the ultimate Prime that he later becomes, and that the iconic hero won’t see eye-to-eye with one new character. Check out Caple Jr.’s full comment below:
“Optimus comes across something that may help him, but he starts to butt heads with other people who want the same object. Everyone has a different motive and agenda. But ultimately, his main goal is to get back home and save his planet. Then we all realize that there’s a bigger threat at large. Will he help save the Earth? You get to see Optimus become the Prime that we always knew.
“Then he meets other people along the way. We have Optimus Primal, who is a very new character, who is also a leader. You see him clash with Optimus Prime a bit. We play him as someone who is wiser, for the time being. For the fans who do know the lore, there are some small nuggets in there in terms of Optimus Primal and who he is exactly and how he has heard about Optimus Prime. Without going into too much detail, they eventually run into each other and there is a lot of learning to be had and there is an arc between the two.”
Rise Of The Beasts’ New Optimus Prime Could Be A Great Change
In all the Transformers movies he’s appeared in thus far, Optimus Prime has been a strong leader, confident in his decisions, and always a commanding presence on-screen. While the Transformers: Rise of the Beasts trailer suggests the character will retain these classic elements, Caple Jr.’s comment suggests audiences may be seeing a new side of the Autobot leader for the first time.
With Caple Jr. promising that the movie will feature Optimus Prime becoming “the Prime that we always knew,” he’s suggesting that, in some ways, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts could serve as something of an origin story for the character. Seeing a version of Optimus Prime who has not yet ascended to the status of this mythic hero could actually deepen the character and make the version of him that appears in other films even more compelling.
