COUNTDOWN: 6 big Rise of the Beasts rumours explored!

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is now just under a month away!

With anticipation for the film at fever pitch, there is also tons of speculation about some of what we’ll see on screen very soon. Several ongoing theories have been proven (yes, Unicron will appear!) or debunked (no, Wheelhack will not be redesigned), but there’s still plenty to ponder.

So today, we’re looking at some of the most significant remaining rumours to see just how likely they may be!

POSSIBLE SPOILERS to follow as we don’t know what may be true or not…

#6: Bumblebee dies

This idea has persisted since early on and appears to maintain momentum even this close to the film’s release. At first, it was mere rumblings from things people had claimed to have heard from the production. Then the teaser trailer release firmly etched it in many people’s minds, as it featured a prominent shot of Bumblebee being impaled through his chest and held aloft by Scourge. Cue much speculation and plenty of discourse about whether the franchise should be prepared to kill off one of its biggest stars, yet there’s still plenty of potential evidence to suggest that the yellow fellow survives too.

For starters, we see footage of ‘Bee in the final trailer from presumably later in the film, including what is pretty evidently the final battle. Aside from footage of him fighting alongside Noah against the Terrorcon army, we get a clip of our boy jumping out of a plane (likely Stratosphere) and leaping into action. It’s evident that he is missing the Autobot logo on his forehead, and, given Scourge has a predilection for stealing and keeping the faction symbols of his victims, it suggests that ‘Bee has already had an altercation with the Terrorcon leader and survived.

VERDICT: Not true, although expect Bumblebee to be roughed up pretty badly and put out of action for a while, only to make a ‘surprise’ re-entry in the film’s third act.

#5: Wheeljack dies

Bumblebee is not the only character rumoured to bite the bullet during the film’s storyline, with Wheeljack being another candidate frequently suggested for a grim fate. This one isn’t based on much more than the spectacled Autobot not initially appearing in much of the marketing, failing to make it onto the early glut of posters or even the cinema foyer standees being widely shared on the internet. That said, this also led to speculation that his design was being overhauled (if not wholly re-done), and the final trailer has shown that not to be the case.

Besides, the most recent round of marketing has put Wheeljack more front and centre, and he’s even been granted a few character posters all of his own, so that doesn’t appear to be a sign of anything.

VERDICT: 50/50, if only because we have no way of knowing! The supposed lack of focus on the character in the promotional push has turned a corner, so if anything, there’s little or nothing to suggest that he will die. At this point, it may be wishful thinking from people who don’t like the character design!

#4: The Maximals aren’t from Cybertron

Ever since Rise of the Beasts was first announced, there has been plenty of discussion about how the titular animalistic Transformers would be handled on-screen. Whilst some elements could be considered relatively faithful to their original depiction during Beast Wars in the 1990s, it’s clear that the characters have been reimagined a fair bit too. A significant source of specific speculation has been their origin, with plenty wondering if the Maximals would hail from the future (as in the original canon) or, indeed, from Cybertron at all.

A quote from director Steven Caple Jr. puts at least some of this to rest. He’s confirmed that “they’re from their own planet” and that “they travel to Earth to protect something important“. That syncs up with the final trailer, where we see plenty of snippets of a jungle-covered partially-robotic world, which we assume is where the Maximals originate. Whether or not there are any time-hopping shenanigans remains to be seen, though!

VERDICT: 100%, as confirmed by the director – Beast Wars fans should prepare themselves for a different take on their heroes. The bigger question now is if their planet is the one we see being devoured by Unicron in the trailer, which would also explain why they travel to Earth and why they know so much about him.

#3: Airazor never transforms

By this point, there have been rumours about nearly all of the Maximals either not transforming or not having a presence large enough to require a voice actor at one point or another. Yet despite us having now seen instances of Optimus Primal, Cheetor and Rhinox converting to robot mode in promotional footage, one of the crew remains an enigma, fueling even more speculation on the subject. Is it possible that Airazor will stay in bird mode for the entire film, or indeed that she might be reduced to a very minor role, despite being voiced by the legend that is Michelle Yeoh?

Admittedly, the evidence for this idea is circumstantial, although it’s hard not to be suspicious. Firstly, we have yet to see any glimpse of a robot mode for the character in any promotional material, whether on posters or in trailers, with only the toys giving any idea of what it might actually look like. Even then, the toy boxes only feature images of the beast mode (whereas the other Maximals are shown in both on different areas of the packaging). Plus, her general absence from so much of the fanfare for this film (not being granted any character posters of her own, for example) has a lot of fans speculating that she will only be a minimal (not Maximals, eh?) presence during the story and even that she may end up being killed off reasonably swiftly.

VERDICT: Distinct possibility. Although, yes, the toys we’ve seen of the character do transform, that’s not confirmation we should expect something similar on-screen. Without any sign of Airazor being able to turn into a robot thus far, it certainly could be the case in the final film.

#2: Unicron is still Earth

When the final trailer dropped, many fans took Unicron’s reveal as the ultimate sign that the live-action films were making a definitive continuity break from the Michael Bay era. After all, it seemed to fly in the face of the planet eater’s presence during the events of The Last Knight, where he was depicted as secretly being the planet Earth in disguise. How could he be freely roaming around space if he was also at the core of our little mudball?

Except it’s not that simple. There’s nothing to say all of Unicron’s scenes in the trailer don’t take place in the past (perhaps involving the destruction of the Maximal’s homeworld, as above). If that’s true, could it be that he was subsequently imprisoned at the core of Earth, and the Terrorcon’s mission is to try and rescue him somehow? In this case, Rise of the Beasts may sync up more with the Bay films than some fans might hope for (even if the continuity is still a mess).

Further fueling this idea is an interview with producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who talks openly about the Optimus Prime of this film going through a character arc to take him to the place we see him in the 2007 film, clearly showing he considers this a prequel to the first five movies. It may not be what everyone wants, but it’s a bit early to consider Rise of the Beasts a straight-up reboot either way.

VERDICT: Let’s say this: I 100% think that the filmmakers want this to work as a prequel to the original films as much as possible, not least to present confusing the more general audience or alienating diehard fans of that era (even if that means continuity being all over the place at best). If anything, I fully anticipate them taking a “having your cake and eating it” approach by allowing it to serve as a reboot-of-sorts for those that want it whilst still placating Bayformer fans who are prepared to do the mental gymnastics required to make that work. I also believe the Unicron stuff from the trailer will be set in the past, and this film will be more about suggesting his return further down the line. Does that mean they’ll stick with the idea of the Chaos Bringer actually being the planet Earth? That’s a giant leap (especially as it wasn’t a very popular idea in TLK), but it could be fascinating if they do it well…

#1: Scourge is Optimus Prime from 2007

Even before Unicron was finally revealed in the final trailer, there was an abundance of speculation that he would be the film’s real big bad and that Scourge and the Terrorcons would act as his heralds. As it turns out, that’s on the money, but the rumour mill didn’t stop there. Likely due to the Decepticons from the 1986 film being recycled versions of old characters, it led to some wondering if the same might be true in Rise of the Beasts and who they could have been beforehand. It was then clocked that Scourge looked to be wearing a mask-of-sorts and that the head crest behind it bore a close resemblance to the Optimus Prime design from the 2007 film, leading some to conclude this could, in fact, be a twisted, fallen version of that same character from the future, returning in time to wreak havoc and serve his planet-sized master.

The speculation continues that Scourge’s alternate mode is very similar to Prime’s from the first Michael Bay film, whilst a leaked image of a Battletrap tie-in toy using a repainted orange version of 2007 Ironhide’s CGI model fuelled further conspiracies that perhaps all of the Terrorcons were reformatted takes on the Autobots from the first film. I’ve even seen some fans theorising that Nightbird might be a fallen version of Airazor somehow (especially if she is offed early on).

It’s a wild idea and almost bizarrely compelling for how out of the box it is, even if it is hugely improbable.

VERDICT: Highly unlikely. There’s already a significant amount going on in Rise of the Beasts, so the idea of them including such an overwhelmingly meta nod towards the earlier films seems almost impossible. That’s not to say it wouldn’t be fascinating, much less entertaining, but it feels like this is a case of 2 + 2 = 37.

So that’s our list! What do you make of the rumours?

TTFN