Transformers: Rise of the Beasts Producers Explain the Maximals

Maximals — maximize! Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, the new movie rolling out into theaters on June 9th, goes beast mode with two fan-favorite factions of Transformers: the Maximals and the Predacons. Originally introduced in the CG-animated 1996-1999 television series Beast Wars: Transformers, the race of robot beasts are the allies of the Autobots trying to return to their home world of Cybertron: Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen), Bumblebee, Mirage (Pete Davidson), Wheeljack (Cristo Fernández), and Arcee (Liza Koshy). When the villainous planet-eating Unicron (Colman Domingo) sends its minions to destroy the Maximals' planet — a lush and verdant home world in a distant galaxy — the living metallic organic beasts have no choice but to escape into the universe in search of a new world to call home.

Transformers: The Maximals, Explained

"We introduce a lot of new heroes and villains in this film that are going to blow the minds of diehard fans," franchise producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura says in production materials. "It's chock full of robots we haven't seen in a movie before. That's one of the great things about Transformers: The lore is based on what happened back on Cybertron, which gives us a lot of leeway to explore the universe at large. So in this movie, we're bringing in the Maximals for the very first time."

The Maximals include the mighty simian warrior Optimus Primal (voiced by Hellboy's Ron Perlman), the soaring Airazor (Everything Everywhere All at Once's Michelle Yeoh), the majestic Cheetor (Crusoe's Tongayi Chirisa), and the armor-plated Rhinox (Beast Wars: Transformers' David Sobolov).

Hailing from the Emmy-winning animated series that spawned the Beast Wars franchise, the Beasts "have been on Earth much longer than the Autobots have," explains producer Mark Vahradian. "They witnessed the rise of mankind, and they shared some of their secrets with humans, so in 1994 they actually have a respect for humanity that the Autobots don't have yet. The Beasts know humans have merit, and they believe it's worth fighting to save Earth."

The Autobots and the Maximals must unite to defeat the evil Terrorcon Scourge (Peter Dinklage), who commands a swarm of insectile robots known as Sweeps. When Scourge steals a mysterious artifact capable of summoning the planet-sized Unicron, two humans — former U.S. Army private Noah Diaz (Anthony Ramos) and researcher Elena Wallace (Dominique Fishback) — join forces with the Autobots to try and prevent Earth's annihilation. 

"The wonderful thing about Transformers is there's a deep bench of characters available, but the mythology of the Beasts was something we were a little bit cautious of early on, because they're a completely different form of robot," Vahradian says. "Unlike the Autobots and Decepticons, the Beasts have fur and skin. They're not just pieces of metal."

Optimus Prime and Optimus Primal

As teased in the trailers, the two robots in disguise who are more than meet the eye don't see eye-to-eye when they first meet in Rise of the Beasts.

"What's interestingabout their meeting is that an exchange of wisdom takes place," Di Bonaventura says of the Autobots leader and his Maximal counterpart. "We always think of Optimus Prime as the wisest character in the series, but in this film, Primal offers adifferent kind of wisdom, and it's a little more timeless."

Adds director Steven Caple Jr.: "Primal understands humanity and all the global threats we face better than Prime does, and he knows we need to work together. So that's probably one of the biggest surprises people will find when they watch the film. Prime and Primal are not buddies at the jump. We see the origin story of how they unite, and I think that's pretty cool. We watch their journey progress, and we follow them as they get to know each other and learn who they are."

The beasty bots were designed by franchise veteran and award-winning production designer Sean Haworth (2007's Transformers, 2009's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, 2018's Bumblebee). Franchise newcomer and Oscar-nominated VFX supervisor Gary Brozenich (Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) was in charge of the visual effects, which Caple says treated the Maximals and Autobots more like action figures than CGI creations.

Because the Maximals don't disguise themselves the same way as Autobots or Terrorcons — the robots in disguise typically shape-shift into vehicle form, like a Porsche 911 and a Nissan Skyline — it was a challenge to depict the Maximals in their animal-like forms.

"It's a bit more straightforward to transform a car into a standing robot than it is to go from something that's an animal into a walking, talking robot, which is what the Maximals do," Brozenich explains. "Also, the Maximals have fur and flesh mixed with their metal parts, so striking that balance was probably the biggest technical and creative challenge we faced. Luckily, production designer Sean Haworth has a long history with the series, and he knew the right way to approach all of this from a design standpoint."

Beast Wars: Transformers

While not a direct adaptation of the Beast Wars animated series, self-professed Transformers fan Caple promises a faithful take on the robo-beasts making their long-awaited big screen debut in Rise of the Beasts.

"We're branching out in this movie, while still paying homage to the past, so I think fans will appreciate where we're going," the director says of moving on from the eternal battle between the Autobots and the Decepticons. "It's such a big universe, and now every time I watch the old animated series, I think to myself, how can we bring that into the live-action films?"

A fan of Beast Wars since he was eight years old —"It had a lot of heart, and a bunch of twists and turns, so I stuck around for all three seasons," Caple says — the filmmaker made sure to include Easter eggs and visual nods for fans of the animated series.

"I dropped them in specifically for true Beast Wars fans, and I think they'll be very happy with what we've come up with," Caple teases. "We have the Beasts interacting with the Autobots for the first time in live action, and the story takes place in the mid '90s, when the series actually aired, which is very different."

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts opens only in theaters June 9th.