It has been a three long years since the last time Transformers fans got to see their favorite characters in action, with the 2018 release of the critically and commercially successful Bumblebee, but they don’t have to wait all that much longer to see the next chapter unfold. On Friday, June 24, 2022, Paramount Pictures will release Transformers: Rise of the Beasts into the wild, welcoming moviegoers into a section of the franchise’s lore that has yet to be properly explored on the big screen.

Over the years, the Transformers film franchise has always seen humans and robots interact for various reasons, and that tradition will continue when Transformers: Rise of the Beasts opens. This time around, Hamilton and In the Heights star Anthony Ramos will be taking on the human lead in the picture, when he portrays a Brooklynite named Noah, according to Collider. Appearing alongside Ramos will be Judas and the Black Messiah standout Dominique Fishback, who will be portraying an artifact researcher working in New York City named Elena. Luna Lauren Vélez, of Dexter and Oz fame, as well as rapper Tobe Nwigwe are also part of the movie’s human cast.

The latest Transformers movie will also see the return of Peter Cullen, who will once again provide the voice of Optimus Prime, the fearless leader of the Autobots. The movie will also see the live-action debut of Optimus Primal, the leader of the Maximals, who, instead of turning into a vehicle, can transform into a gorilla. Providing the voice of this iconic character will be Ron Perlman, according to another Collider report.

When Transformers: Rise of the Beasts opens in theaters in the summer of 2022, it will take audiences back to 1994 New York City (though parts of the film will take place in Peru), where they will follow Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback’s characters as they find themselves in the middle of an ancient conflict between three factions: the Maximals, Predacons, and Terrorcons. Although a lot of the finer details have yet to be revealed at this point in time, experiencing a new story with characters who have yet to appear on the big screen will surely be a breath of fresh air for the franchise and its diehard fans.

In addition to introducing the Maximals, Predacons, and Terrorcons, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts will also serve as an origin story for Optimus Prime and will follow him as he first arrives on Earth, according to Variety. During a June 2021 virtual event attended by the outlet, it was revealed that Optimus Prime will look more like the character first introduced during the classic animated series and line of toys in the 1980s and less like the version seen in the movie franchise starting with 2007’s Transformers. It was also reported that other classic characters like Mirage, Arcee, and Bumblebee will all appear in the upcoming release.

Surprisingly, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts will be the first time the deep and rich mythology of the 1996 CGI-animated spinoff series, Beast Wars (which later had a continuation titled Beast Machines), will be explored in a live-action movie. Over the course of three seasons and 52 episodes (as well as multiple comic books), Beast Wars told the story of the Maximals (descendants of the Autobots) and the Predacons (the show’s version of Decepticons) whose fight over a mysterious artifact known as the Golden Disk leads them to travel through a wormhole that spits them out on an ancient Earth. With no modern vehicles to mimic, the robots transform into different animals ranging from a gorilla (Optimus Primal) to a dinosaur (Megatron).

Stepping in to lead the charge behind Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is Steven Caple Jr., who is best known for directing Creed II in 2018. In November 2020, Deadline reported that Caple, who also directed two episodes of grown-ish, had been tapped to direct the film based on a script written by Job Harold. Production on the seventh installment in the Transformers film franchise was well underway in October 2021, when Caple took to Instagram to show off some of the toys he was getting to work with while on set in Peru. And, while he has been mum on any additional plot details, Caple looked more than stoked to hang out with his “squad” of Autobots.

When Anthony Ramos signed on for Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, director Steven Caple Jr. had one request for the Broadway star: get a driver’s license. During a September 2021 appearance on the Sprout Podcast, Ramos revealed that he never really had a reason to get a driver’s license because he grew up taking the train (and later Uber) anywhere he needed to go in his hometown of New York City. Anthony Ramos passed his driving test, secured his license, and has been able to fulfill his duties on the set of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, though he made sure to point out that he wasn’t doing any crazy car stunts or anything like that. That about does it for all the information we have on Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, but be on the lookout for more on all the rest of the characters and that trailer, which should be coming sooner rather than later. Also, make sure to keep checking up on the other upcoming Transformer movies coming down the line.