Paramount’s Transformers films got a much-needed shot in the arm with 2018’s Bumblebee that allowed the studio to quietly reboot the otherwise maligned long-running franchise. For a series now 15 years old, some kind of shakeup has been needed for a while now, and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts looks to offer that in the form of time-travelling robots that can shapeshift into organic, prehistoric animals.
The new Super Bowl teaser for Beasts — which is also a not particularly stealthy Porche commerical — doesn’t reveal much in the way of a larger plot, but it does provide what the films have become known for: car chases, human characters looking in awe and screaming, and giant robots punching each other while shifting their bodies mid-battle. Watching the Autobots and Decepticons fight with and against their eventual successors — the Maximals, Terrorcons, and Predacons — is just Very Cool in the way Transformers fights often can be. Turns out, adding robot animals into the action-packed mix really does count for a lot.
In the same way Bumblebee was aiming to tap into that ‘80s nostalgia that made Transformers so beloved back in the day, Rise of the Beasts is very much trying to draw in fans of the Beast Wars sub-franchise. With classic characters like Optimus Primal and Airazor part of the main cast alongside series old heads Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, and all of them sporting cleaner looks compared to the mainline films, the film seems primed to give fans of the property what they want, in more ways than one.
Directed by Steven Caple Jr. and starring Anthony Ramos, Dominique Fishback, and Tobe Nwigwe, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts will release in theatres on June 9.
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Editor’s Note: Release dates within this article are based in the U.S., but will be updated with local Australian dates as soon as we know more.