Following our trip back to 1987 for Bumblebee, the Transformers film series is jumping to 1994 for its next installment, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. The premise of the seventh Transformers movie was revealed back in June, and originally the plan was to deliver the final product to the masses on June 24, 2022. However, it’s been announced that Rise of the Beasts has been pushed back a year.
Instead, our reunion with the robots in disguise won’t happen until June 9, 2023, where it will open opposite an untitled Universal event movie. No specific reason was provided for why Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is now slated for 2023, but it takes the release slot that previously belonged to the Star Trek movie being directed by WandaVision’s Matt Shakman. Paramount Pictures has now pushed that sci-fi project to December 22, 2023, the same day that Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron is set to open, although given that its production was recently delayed, it’s logical to assume Disney won’t be keeping the next Star Wars movie there.
So now there will be an approximately four and a half year-long gap between Bumblebee’s release and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’ arrival. As noted by THR, these date changes come as Paramount new CEO Brian Robbins takes charge. Of course, Rise of the Beasts is far from the only movie to be delayed by a year, especially during the pandemic era. Whatever the reason for the date change, at least Transformers fans can take comfort knowing it’ll still be a summer blockbuster, just a year later than expected.
Directed by Creed II’s Steven Caple Jr. off a script written by Darnell Metayer and Josh Peters, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts will introduced the Beast Wars mythology to the film franchise. As previously mentioned, the story will take place seven years after the events of Bumblebee, but rather than reunite with Hailee Steinfeld’s Charlie Watson, the main human protagonists will instead be Anthony Ramos’ Noah, who’s an ex-military electronics expert living with his family in Brooklyn, and Dominique Fishback’s Elena, who works at a museum as an artifacts researcher. Naturally the presence of giant robots that can change their appearance will throw Noah and Elena’s lives into chaos.
More to come…