COUNTDOWN: 10 questions about Rise of the Beasts Unicron

Unless you’ve been diligently keeping off the internet over the past week or so, you can’t help but have come across the latest (and final) trailer for Transformers: Rise of the Beasts!

Showcasing an unprecedented amount of action and new story beats ahead of the film’s impending June release, the teaser also confirmed a longstanding rumour as we finally saw a glimpse of our new live-action take on the planet-eater Unicron! To say that fans are excited about such a development is an understatement.

Yet there’s still a lot to speculate about before the film makes it to cinemas, so today, we’re going through 10 major questions about this new Unicron.

#10: How big will Unicron be?

Can’t believe that barely a week after sending this tweet I got my answer https://t.co/Xta1uFVvFP pic.twitter.com/Dm6ckTCvOR

— Sixo (@SixoTF) May 1, 2023

Unicron has never been shown as a consistent size across his many varying portrayals in Transformers media. Truth be told, even his first appearance in the 1986 animated movie wildly varies in terms of how large he appears to be, as he’s sometimes considerably bigger than a planet full of giant alien robots, only to then be able to hold a conversation with just one equivalent-size being in his next significant scene. Popular fan opinion has him being roughly a similar size to Cybertron in his alternate mode but really, he could be anything from about equivalent to a large moon up to a vastly more dominant planet, depending on your interpretation. The Rise of the Beasts trailer doesn’t give much away regarding this new portrayal, despite the dialogue jokingly tackling the subject head-on. Mirage describes Unicron as “way bigger than a planet, ” and we do see him devouring a ringed world (more on that below) that looks potentially at least a little smaller than he is. So, yeah, odds are he’s pretty big, and potentially even more so than his classic ’80s portrayal!

#9: Will Unicron transform?

One thing the trailer most certainly did not show us was whether or not Unicron can or indeed will transform during Rise of the Beasts. Certainly, it would be disappointing if the Chaos Bringer was outright confirmed to not at least have the ability to perform such a task, even if we don’t see it as such. However, some fans will only be sated with the full sequence shown on screen in its full glory, given it was one of the standout moments from the 1986 film. On the flip side, with such a seemingly stuffed film already, will there be room for such a thing, and given how complex many live-action transformations are, how will a planet-sized conversion work on screen?

#8: What will the robot mode look like?

If Unicron is set to transform during the upcoming film, what will he look like? From what we can see of the planet mode so far, it is at least relatively faithful to a generalised picture of a classic-styled take on the character, but would a humanoid form follow suit? The character has been mostly consistent in terms of his look throughout various Transformers media thus far. Still, there’s nothing to say that Rise of the Beasts would follow suit, especially given that the film’s portrayals of other characters vary from being notably quite nostalgic (e.g. Optimus Prime and Arcee) to completely overhauled (Mirage and Wheeljack). If Unicron does transform and he looks significantly different from his familiar appearance from the 1986 film, I imagine some fans will be slightly disgruntled, but let’s see.

#7: What will Unicron’s origins be?

Artwork credit: Paris / Burns

Weirdly, Unicron’s origins are not explored in the classic ’80s film at all (despite having been part of the earlier script development). If anything, this makes the character even more imposing, like he’s some unexplainable cosmic inevitability. Still, the franchise would go on to provide a backstory for the character – several of them, in fact! The cartoon introduced his creator as a (surprisingly tiny) being known as Primacron in a tale that arguably prompts more questions than it provides solutions. Unsurprisingly, the Marvel comics alternative has become more widely adopted (or at least bits of it), showcasing Unicron as a sort-of deity locked in an eternal battle against his nemesis, Primus. It remains to be seen what, if any, of this Rise of the Beasts will take inspiration from or if the film will follow suit with the Chaos Bringer’s first appearance and eschew the idea of explaining the character altogether.

#6: What planet do we see Unicron devouring in the trailer?

OK, let’s get into the trailer itself, with one of the biggest questions prompted being about what planet we see Unicron attacking. Some have assumed this is Earth, although the planetary ring would clearly suggest otherwise. It may be just some generic world sacrificed to demonstrate the villain’s remarkable presence to the audience, or there may be another quite intriguing explanation. Director Steven Caple Jr. has recently confirmed that the Maximals are “from their own planet” in this film and will have a very different background to what we typically expect of the classic Beast Wars characters. They also seem to know a lot about Unicron already, as they clearly arrive to try and warn Optimus Prime and the Autobots about the impending threat. Is the planet seen here their homeworld? It would make sense, especially as we see numerous other shots of a kind of ‘jungle world’ elsewhere in the trailer. Perhaps they know firsthand Unicron’s power simply because he ate their planet!

#5: Are Unicron’s trailer scenes set in the past?

Suppose, indeed, this is the Maximal’s homeworld. In that case, it’s certainly possible that every shot of Unicron we see in the trailer is set in flashback, potentially even to a distant time long before the events of the present day (1994 in the film’s timeline). After all, we know that Optimus Primal’s crew have been hiding out on Earth for a long time, so it stands to reason that they evacuated and decamped there because their own planet was destroyed. If that’s true, what has changed to bring them out of hiding and wanting to warn the Autobots of a new threat suddenly? Is Unicron finally on the way to Earth… or could it be something else?

#4: Is Unicron currently part of Earth?

Alright, bear with me here. I know how it sounds.

At the end of The Last Knight (I said bear with me), we discovered that Planet Earth was, in fact, Unicron, making our world essentially the enemy of the Transformers’ creator, Quintessa. Frankly, none of it made much sense, which is at least partially why it sat pretty badly with a lot of fans, who, by extension, have been all too happy to take Unicron’s appearance in Rise of the Beasts as a sign that the film is a straight-up reboot instead of a quasi-prequel to the Michael Bay films. However, if all of Unicron’s scenes from the trailer are indeed set in the past, then they can’t be used to prove the new film’s connection (or lack thereof) to the previous continuity (or lack thereof) either way. Could it be possible that following the destruction of the Maximal’s homeworld, Unicron was somehow imprisoned inside what would eventually become Earth and that Optimus Primal and his crew have been safeguarding his slumber ever since?

That might sound far-fetched to some, but consider some of the Macchu Picchu scenes from the trailer that show the Autobots and Maximals uncovering long-lost secrets could potentially be a sign of exactly this kind of scenario. Perhaps the new threat is simply that Scourge and the Terrorcons have found the location of their master at long last. Or it could simply be that none of this is true and that Unicron is just very slow to arrive – we will know soon enough!

#3: How much screen time will Unicron receive?

Whatever his origins, the odds are that Unicron won’t dominate the film’s runtime to quite the degree that many fans might expect. As fun as it sounds, almost two hours of the character would lessen the sense of awe a fair bit, so expect the filmmakers to use him somewhat sparingly, especially if the scenes from the trailer are indeed in flashback. We also know that this film is potentially setting up a trilogy if it does well, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve held back more for a potential sequel or two. It has been confirmed that the character will be voiced by actor Colman Domingo though, so we’re definitely in for a few lines of dialogue, at least!

#2: What will Unicron’s relationship with his ‘heralds’ be like?

The next question is how Unicron’s ‘heralds’ in this film will function. We know that Scourge and the Terrorcons are serving him in some fashion, but why is that and exactly what they’re setting out to achieve? Are they ‘reformatted’ villains such as the classic depictions of Galvatron, Cyclonus and Scourge from the 1986 film, or are they original characters devoted to the Chaos Bringer more out of actual loyalty instead of forced servitude? There have been some weird rumours doing the rounds that these three are twisted takes on established Transformers from previous films (presumably travelling back in time), with some suggesting that Scourge is actually Optimus Prime from the Michael Bay films somehow… but take that with a very sizeable pinch of salt as it feels way too out there to actually hold water as a legitimate theory (as fascinating as it would be!).

#1: Will we see Primus?

Now that we know Unicron is on the way, some fans are inevitably asking if we’ll see a live-action depiction of the Transformers’ deity, Primus, too! The character is commonly depicted as being present at the core of Cybertron, sometimes even transforming into a gigantic robot mode of his own. It’s a tantalising prospect, but again, I don’t imagine this happening within the runtime of Rise of the Beasts, so expect this one to fall to one of those potential sequels if anything.

So that’s our list! Are you excited to see Unicron in Rise of the Beasts?

TTFN