The Transformers: Rise of the Beasts trailer has broken a Paramount viewership record. The movie, which features extraterrestrial robots with the ability to change forms, is the seventh installment in the live-action Transformers series. It is based on the 1984 toy line of the same name, which featured many animated series in the years that followed. Transformers, directed by Michael Bay, launched the live-action branch of the franchise in 2007. Four sequels and the 2018 prequel Bumblebee followed.
The number of people who watched the Transformers: Rise of the Beasts trailer last week skyrocketed after it gave fans their first look at the first movie in the franchise in five years. The Wrap reports that according to calculations made by Paramount, the trailer received 494 million worldwide views in its first week. This has garnered more attention than the combined trailers for the highly anticipated movies Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (77 million) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (182 million).
What We Know So Far About Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
Part of the reason the film has captured the public imagination is that it is adapting one of the franchise’s most popular spinoff animated series, Beast Wars: Transformers, along with its related spinoffs and merchandise, which debuted in 1996. The film, set in 1994, brings together three distinct groups of Transformers recognized as the Maximals, Predacons, and Terrorcons. To blend in, the more primal Transformers transform into vicious animals rather than cars or other machinery.
While plot details beyond what is depicted in the trailer are still being kept under wraps, more information should be revealed as the release date of June 9, 2023 approaches. Many of the characters who will appear in the film, including the return of Autobots Bumblebee and Optimus Prime, have been confirmed (Peter Cullen). Maximals include Optimus Primal (Ron Perlman), Airazor (Michelle Yeoh), Cheetor, and Rhinox (David Sobolov), Terrorcons Scourge (Peter Dinklage), Battletrap (also Sobolov), and Nightbird (Michaela Jaé Rodriguez), and Autobots Mirage (Pete Davidson), Arcee (Liza Koshy), Wheeljack (Cristo Fernández (John DiMaggio).
The human cast of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts includes Anthony Ramos from In the Heights, Dominique Fishback from Judas and the Black Messiah, Luna Lauren Vélez from Dexter, and Tobe Nwigwe from Mo. Steven Caple Jr. directed the film, which had a production budget of around $200 million. As a follow-up to his 2018 franchise entry Creed II, it will take some time to recoup its box office costs, this initial audience interest bodes well for the future of both this film and the franchise in general.
Source: The Wrap