Ron Perlman, roll out! Or… paw out. Fan-favorite actor Ron Perlman has been cast to lend his voice to Optimus Primal in the upcoming film Transformers movie, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. The film is a sequel to Bumblebee set in 1994 and will introduce the Maximals, Predacons, and Terrorcons to the storyline, which involves a battle between the Autobots and Decepticons on planet Earth.
Optimus Primal is the leader of the Maximals in the cartoons and was originally voiced Garry Chalk. However, this isn’t the first time Ron Perlman has tackled the role, as he voiced Optimus Primal in Transformers: Power of the Primes, a web series that focused on discovering a new Prime. Primal himself is a Transformer who can turn himself into a gorilla, a feat that is sure to take some tricky design for a realistic-looking CGI movie. Perlman definitely has the voice to play a transforming gorilla and has already won nerdom over with his turns in two of the three Hellboy films.
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts will feature a host of other Transformers from Beast Wars, including Air-Razor and Rhinox, and see the return of Optimus Prime (still voiced by Peter Cullen) and Bumblebee. Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback are set to star in the movie, which will reveal why Prime has a connection to Earth. Being set seven years after the events of the previous film, plenty should have gone on in that time. It’s not clear if any of the cast from Bumblebee will make an appearance in Rise of the Beasts. Steven Caple Jr. is directing the sequel, and just in case you were concerned he’d left the franchise, Michael Bay is producing with Steven Spielberg receiving an executive producer credit.
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts will release on June 24, 2022.
