Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts Could Be Just The Start Of Unicron's Reign
The marketing for "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" has been alluding to a coming "darkness" since the beginning. It's only once the film's second trailer debuted on April 27, 2023, that we learned who this vague threat was: Unicron (voiced by Colman Domingo). Like the Death Star and Galactus rolled into one, Unicron is a metal planet that devours other worlds and transforms into a titanic mechanical demon. He's been known by many names, none of them good, including the Chaos Bringer, the Planet Eater, and the Lord of the Undead.
This isn't Unicron's first time in a "Transformers" movie. He debuted (with the voice of Orson Welles) as the villain of the 1986 "The Transformers: The Movie," a spin-off of the original cartoon. The film's grander scale demanded a villain more dangerous than the Decepticons. Since that movie is, for better or worse, the foundational text of "Transformers," Unicron is the franchise's go-to overarching villain.
Unicron was also featured in the final Michael Bay-directed live-action "Transformers" movie, "The Last Knight." That film took a page from the cartoon "Transformers: Prime," where the dormant Unicron was the core of Earth itself — then he started waking up. Since the "Transformers" films have been semi-rebooted, we'll never see that story concluded. Indeed, "Rise of the Beasts" is going for a more traditional approach to Unicron; he's an independent entity from Earth, his design (in planet mode at least) is a recreation of the classic 1986 one, and he has normal-sized Transformers as "heralds" doing his bidding.
"Rise of the Beasts" director Steven Caple Jr. has said he doesn't intend this to be Unicron's last time on the silver screen either.
The past will consume the future
Speaking to Den of Geek, Caple revealed he was introduced to "Transformers" by the 1986 movie. For reference, he was born in 1988 — too young to see the movie during its original run, but exactly the right age to discover it on videotape. This history makes it fitting that Caple is the director to bring Unicron into live-action. He explained:
"I was dying for Unicron to show up in a live-action movie, and to be honest, I'll put it out there, I want him to be across the next two or three films, a really huge major villain."
Caple has expressed interest in reintroducing Megatron as well; maybe he intends to again pull from the 1986 movie and have Unicron remake the Decepticon leader into his servant, Galvatron?
Now, even though Caple has ideas for a sequel, he isn't signed on to make one yet — that'll probably depend on the box office returns. "Bumblebee" director Travis Knight also had ideas for a sequel that didn't pan out. Even without Caple's words, though, I think it's pretty clear what Paramount is doing here. Like so many studios these days, they're chasing the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and they want Unicron to be their Thanos.
Let's set the scene: a horned alien invader wants a magic MacGuffin to open a portal and bring ruination to Earth. The heroes must team up and stop this. Am I talking about "The Avengers," "Justice League," or "Rise of the Beasts"? Trick question, it's all three. Unicron's herald Scourge (Peter Dinklage) rounds out the "harbinger of a greater evil" trio with Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds). Time will tell if Unicron's story is concluded like Thanos', or if he's cast into limbo like Darkseid.
"Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" is now playing in theaters.