'Transformers: Rise of the Beasts' Trailer Gets Primal as Autobots and Maximals Team Up for Major Battle

Autobots, prepare to unleash the beasts! Paramount released the latest trailer for Transformers: Rise of the Beasts on Wednesday, giving fans an exciting new look at the highly anticipated film.

Set in 1994 New York City, the Steven Caple Jr.-directed flick follows the Autobots as they team up with a whole new faction of Transformers -- the Maximals -- to take on the Predacons and Terrorcons. The roster of Autobots will be fronted by -- who else? -- Optimus Prime, in his Generation 1 form. Rise of the Beasts will explore who Prime is "underneath the metal" and how he becomes the leader we know him as. He'll be joined by Bumblebee (in off-road Camaro form), the rebellious speedster Mirage (a Porsche 911) and the "super tough and fierce" female Transformer Arcee (a Ducati motorcycle).

With Megatron sitting this one out, the villain of Rise of the Beats is Scourge, the ruthless leader of the Terrorcons and his ninja-like right-hand woman, Nightbird (now in Nissan GT-R form).

As for the titular Beasts, their leader is the wise Optimus Primal, who appears as a giant, rustic gorilla. He'll star alongside the rhinoceros-esque muscle of the group, Rhinox, and the avian heart of the Maximals, Airazor.

Real-life New York natives Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback lead the film's human cast with the latter playing Elena, an artifacts researcher fighting to prove herself in her field, and Ramos playing Noah, an ex-military electronics whiz and family man. 

Alongside Fishback and Ramos, the star-studded cast includes Luna Lauren Velez, Dean Scott Vazquez and Tobe Nwigwe in his film debut, as well as the voice talents of Ron Perlman, Peter Dinklage, Michelle Yeoh, Pete Davidson, Liza Koshy, Cristo Fernández, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, Tongayi Chirisa, and previous voice actors Peter Cullen, John DiMaggio and David Sobolov.

ET spoke with Ramos ahead of Super Bowl LVII back in February, where he shared what it was like to film in Peru. 

"Going to Machu Picchu, we were at Cusco and we went to the Amazon right on the outskirts of the jungle. It was crazy," Ramos shared. "It was wild. It was a lot of deadly animals and just things to look out for."

Making the transition from Broadway to a Michael Bay-created franchise like Transformers has admittedly been different for the Hamilton star, but one he called "amazing" nonetheless.

"It's amazing. It's different. It's a lot of green screen, a lot of action and not a live audience, but it's fun, man," he gushed. "Our movie's different. Steven Caple Jr., who directed Creed 2, he's got a vision. He's expanding the world. We've got the beast wars now. Dominique Fishback, who's also from Brooklyn -- I'm co-starring with her, and we've got the new characters, Optimus Primal, Cheetor, a bunch of new characters and all the OG ones -- Optimus Prime and Bumble Bee, so, we're expanding the world."

Taking over an iconic franchise is something Ramos said he's grateful to be doing, and he'll be putting his own stamp on things, bringing his own flavor to the films, which have previously seen stars like Shia LaBeouf and Mark Wahlberg at the helm.

"It feels great. Man, it feels good," Ramos told ET. "We get to do something new with it. I'm grateful, being Puerto Rican from the hood, and from the projects in Brooklyn, having an opportunity to bring flavor to Transformers -- Dominique, African American from Brooklyn, from East New York -- being able to come together and bring that to this franchise, and the movie being set in New York and us going to Peru, and a lot of that culture being embedded in this new movie, that's what it's all about."

"Being able to expand on that and go further with that," he added.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts arrives in theaters on June 9.

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