Spoiler warning: A joke told by Pete Davidson as Mirage in “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” is discussed below. Beware if you haven’t seen it yet.
Maximals maximize!
As the movie title roars, “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” (in theaters Friday) goes big with the fearsomely furred Transformers faction Maximals, ancient Autobot descendants.
But chest-pounding simian Maximal leader Optimus Primal and company are just a portion of the robots battling in the seventh live-action “Transformers” movie, which showcases the attitude-filled Autobot Mirage (voiced by Pete Davidson) and the planet-devouring villain Unicron.
“We’re introducing the Beasts to the franchise, and there’s so much fan excitement around that,” says director Steven Caple Jr. “But ‘Rise of the Beasts’ goes well beyond the beasts.”
Here are five ways the robots of this “Transformers” go next level.
Pete Davidson’s Mirage brings attitude, humor and a bawdy line the studio wanted to cut
The warrior Mirage was always going to be a cocky wisecracker. But this went to another level with Davidson voicing the Autobot who transforms into a rare silver 964 Generation Porsche 911 and has self-replication abilities through holographic illusions.
“I wanted Mirage to show the comedic tone I was diving into here,” says Caple. “And Pete really delivered.”
The former “SNL” cast member was in top form in the recording studio and riffed a hilariously bawdy line.
“The original line was ‘Work friends? After all we’ve been through?’ which was cute,” Caple recalls. “But Pete was giving all of these other reactions. And being Pete Davidson, he threw out the line, ‘Work friends? But you’ve been inside me.’ And we just cried laughing, like that was it, that’s the line. We have got to try this.”
Caple brought over Anthony Ramos, who plays Mirage’s human BFF Noah, to hear the scene.
“I was in the next studio and Steven was like, ‘You have to see this,’ ” Ramos recalls. “And I just busted out laughing. It was hilarious.”
Caple says he fought to keep the line in even as Paramount Studios executives were initially unenthusiastic about the double entendre in a “Transformers” movie.
“I’ll be honest, there were definitely moments where the studio didn’t want that joke in the movie,” says Caple. “But we screened it (and) that line got the loudest laugh in the theater. We were like, ‘We gotta keep it now.’ If we hadn’t screened it, the joke probably would have been cut.”
Optimus Primal, Michelle Yeoh’s Airazor lead the Maximals
“Rise of the Beasts” brings the Maximals, stars of the 1996 TV animated series “Beast Wars,” to life as fans have been waiting for. Noble leader Optimus Primal (voiced by Ron Perlman) and winged Airazor (Michelle Yeoh) get the most screen time of a group that also includes Cheetor (Tongayi Chirisa) and the armor-plated Rhinox (David Sobolov).
Caple says the wait was worth it, if only for the use of cutting-edge technology to create the hair-covered creatures, which was “a tough thing to do.”
Even if they are fighting on the same side, don’t expect OG Autobot leader Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) to welcome his fellow alpha leader Optimus Primal with open arms.
“I wanted there to be a little friction between the two, it’s not buddy-buddy,” says Caple. “It makes for good story.”
Autobot Arcee leads the surge of women robots in ‘Rise of the Beasts’
“Rise of the Beasts” brings the rise of the women robots including Airazor and the motorcycle Autobot Arcee (Liza Koshy). Arcee appeared briefly in 2009’s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” and 2018’s “Bumblebee,” but brings her skills to the thick of battle.
“We never explored Arcee and she’s such a cool character,” says Caple. “I wanted to give her a voice, personality and some tough action sequences.”
The two are opposed by Nightbird (Michaela Jaé Rodriguez), a feared winged assassin with the villainous Terrorcons, who rounds out the field of women characters.
“We felt this was the movie to do it,” says Caple. “It’s long overdue.”
‘Beasts’ goes old school with Optimus Prime
“Rise of the Beasts” travels back to 1994, seven years following Optimus Prime’s first appearance on Earth at the end of “Bumblebee,” set in 1987.
“Optimus Prime hasn’t learned to trust humans yet,” says producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, who says OP is far from the human protector fans see in the franchise movies starting with 2007’s “Transformers.”
“We get to see Optimus Prime mature emotionally here, toward himself and humans,” says di Bonaventura.
Both Optimus Prime and Bumblebee have an old-school, vehicle-heavy design similar to the original Transformers toy line and 1984 animated TV series.
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Unicron’s ‘Transformers’ villainy is planet-sized huge
The evil Terrorcon Scourge (Peter Dinklage) is bad enough in “Beasts.” But Scourge summons the big bad boss: the stupendously-sized, planet-devouring Unicron (Colman Domingo), who first appeared in 1986’s animated “Transformers: The Movie.”
“Paying homage to the original horned Unicron was key,” says Caple. “We added some blades and darker colors to make him scarier and a big beautiful ring around his entire planet.”
Unicron will be a supervillain for “Transformers” movies to come.
“That’s the thing about Unicron, he tells that there are bigger universes out there to explore,” says Caple. “I just made the introduction.”
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