After a five-year hiatus following 2018’sBumblebee, theTransformersseries is finally racing back into theaters this June withRise of the Beasts. Featuring the fan-favorite Maximals from the belovedBeast Wars: Transformerscartoon, the first trailer for the upcoming film inspired no shortage of excitement among countless fans of the franchise.
However, when the film’s second trailer was recently released, it dropped a massive bombshell regarding the plot of the movie: the main villain ofRise of the Beastswill not be the Terrorcon leader Scourge (voiced by Peter Dinklage) as previously believed, but rather the planet-sized destroyer of worlds Unicron. Unicron is an absolutely massive figure inTransformerslore, in more ways than one, and the reveal that he’ll finally bemaking his live actiondebut has made fans even more hyped to see the new film. But despite this, it’s possible that Unicron’s inclusion inRise of the Beastsmay be a bad omen for the upcoming sequel.
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Who is Unicron?
The character of Unicron originated in the very firstTransformersfilm — 1986’s animated featureThe Transformers: The Movie, in which he was voiced by none other than Orson Welles himself in his final film role. A nigh-omnipotent force of evil who devours entire worlds, Unicron enlists the aid of a dying Megatron in his schemes, transforming him into a mightynew form as Galvatron.The Seekers Skywarp and Thundercracker are likewise granted new forms as Cyclonus and Scourge, joining their master in battle against the Autobots. In the film’s climax, Unicron reveals that he himself is a Transformer, shifting into his demonic-looking robot form to destroy Cybertron before he’s ultimately destroyed from within by Rodimus Prime using the Matrix of Leadership.
Writer Simon Furman would flesh out Unicron further in the Marvel-publishedTransformerscomics, establishing him as an ancient god of destruction who was sealed inside a mechanical shell by his brother and opposite Primus — the god of light who became one with the planet Cybertron and first created the Transformers. Later interpretations would establish that the first Cybertronians, the Thirteen Primes,were created by Primusas champions to defeat Unicron.
Since his creation in the 1980s, Unicron has been a recurring presence throughout theTransformersfranchise, appearing in cartoons, comics, and video games. He was the main antagonist of theTransformers: Armadaanime and its sequelsEnergonandCybertron, collectively known as the “Unicron Trilogy”. Later, theTransformers: Primecartoon provided its own twist on Unicron, revealing that Earth itself had formed around the planet-eater’s sleeping body. This same twist would be repeated in Michael Bay’s lastTransformersfilm,The Last Knight, which set up Unicron as an obvious hook for a sequel that never came — at least, not with Bay at the helm.
The latestRise of the Beaststrailer provides a lookat a Unicron who is very clearly not sealed inside the Earth. Rather, he seems to be the big bad pulling the strings of the Terrorcons, led by Scourge in a clear nod to the 1986 animated movie. On the one hand, the fact that Unicron will finally be appearing in a live actionTransformersmovie after years of waiting is certainly something to be celebrated. However,Rise of the Beastsmay not necessarily be the best place to use him.
Will Rise of the Beasts Be Too Crowded?
No matter the continuity, Unicron is invariably the greatest threat in theTransformersfranchise. He’s a planet-sized Transformer with the power to destroy entire worlds with ease — threats to the universe don’t get much bigger than that. Unicron is theTransformersequivalent to Marvel’s Galactusor DC’s Anti-Monitor: a cosmic force of destruction who serves as a seemingly unstoppable foe for the heroes to overcome. He’s the kind of earth-shattering villain who’s typically built up over the course of several films, which makes it rather jarring thatRise of the Beastsis bringing him in so suddenly.
While it’s the seventh live actionTransformersfilm overall,Rise of the Beastsis only the second movie in the rebooted movie continuity that began withBumblebee. In other words, the new timeline begins with a heartfelt, small-scale story with two rank-and-file Decepticons as the main villains, then immediately follows it with a showdownagainst the planet-sizedcosmic embodiment of evil. It’s a colossal change in both tone and scale, and it does Unicron a disservice by introducing him without any buildup. But of course, Unicron doesn’t seem to be the movie’s main priority.
True to its name,Rise of the Beastswas initially billed as a clash between the Autobots and the Maximals, with both sides l inevitably teaming up against the common enemy of Scourge and his Terrorcons. Yet out of nowhere, the new trailer reveals that the film is actually about saving Earth from Unicron. It’s an absolutely massive shift in narrative that raises some major red flags. Balancing three rival factions of Cybertronians in one film — to say nothing of the human cast — is enough of a precarious juggling act as is. Adding Unicronhimself into the mixon top of everything else feels like a recipe for disaster. With so many characters competing for attention in a single movie, it’ll be a miracle if any of them get any proper development.
Ultimately, it feels like a disservice to Unicron to throw him in as the main villain of a live actionBeast Warsmovie. The film is, after all, titledRise of the Beasts, notRise of Unicron. The Maximals are the main draw of the movie. A villain of Unicron’s magnitude ought to be the center of his own movie after years of setup, like Thanos inAvengers: Infinity War. But instead, Unicron’s far-too-soon introduction as the big bad of a crossovermovie reeks of DoomsdayinBatman v Superman. Hopefully,Rise of the Beastswill manage to do the impossible and succeed as both aBeast Warsmovie and a Unicron movie. But from the outside, forcing Unicron to compete with the Maximals for the spotlight feels like a repeat of the Michael Bay era’s narrative mistakes.
