With the Transformers: Rise of the Beasts set to arrive in theaters in just under two months and a new trailer arriving this Thursday, Collider’s Steve Weintraub spoke with the film’s producer, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, about the movie’s unique approach to continuing the stories of the classic IP, while still honoring the “promised land” filmmaker Michael Bay brought to live-action – emphasis on action – in 2007.

Rise of the Beasts, set in the year 1994, stars Anthony Ramos (In the Heights) and Dominique Fishback (Swarm) as the human heroes and an ensemble cast behind the movie’s Transformers. With names like Ron Perlman reprising his role as Optimus Primal from the animated series, Power of the Primes, and Pete Davidson, Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh and Peter Dinklage joining the franchise as Mirage, Airazor and Scourge, Bonaventura tells us “character arcs dominate the story,” and that doesn’t just apply to humans.

During their discussion, which you can read below, Bonaventura details why this soft reboot is unique to its predecessors, the challenges of bringing in the Beasts, and weighs in on Optimus Prime versus Optimus Primal. He explains how the Maximals dictated the setting, why they presented VFX with a specific obstacle to overcome, and who the Rise of the Beasts breakout star is.

COLLIDER: With Rise of the Beasts, I think a lot of people want to know, how does this movie compare to the previous movies in terms of tone? Is this unique?

BONAVENTURA: I think the overall architecture of this movie is definitely unique for this movie, and it's always going to be influenced by what we did in the Bay movies in a certain respect because that's how the robots have been rendered. But, just like in Bumblebee, we gave them a different spin. Same here.

I think the way to talk about this is, what were our goals in making this? In making Bumblebee, our objective was to see how far, frankly, we could create intimacy in a movie with a robot. And it was a conscious attempt, not to make the biggest scale, but to center the story around an emotional construct. I think the movie is very successful in what it did. There were fans that complained there was not enough action, but it was very well received as a movie. Our hope was when we started out, and our intention, was to bring the intimacy that we were able to create in Bumblebee with the scale that was represented in what's called the “Bay movies.”

So, our first objective was to figure out, how do we hold on to the emotionality of the experience for the humans that are going through it? And our decision was to give them character arcs that are more significant than we've done before. It's hard to say that about Shia [LaBeouf] in the first movie; you know, he goes from being a young man, essentially, to a man, right? In this case, Anthony Ramos and Dominique [Fishback’s] characters are both characters who are trying to find their way in a life, and in a cultural society, that's not making it the easiest for them. And so, the experience of the movie for those characters is to come to terms, not exactly about who they are, but how to move forward in their lives. It's an interesting character arc for both of them where they fulfill, to a certain extent, the desire that they were having for themselves.

The thing that is also unique to this movie is, we actually have a Transformer that has a character arc, and that's Optimus. The fun of this – and this goes to the question you're asking about how is it different than a Bay movie, or what does it feel like? Well, the character arcs dominate the story, and the propulsion of the story brings them along a journey that is reminiscent of movies that we've done, in the sense of like, we go to Peru, we go to Machu Picchu.

But what's interesting is, and you will appreciate this as a fan, at the end of Bumblebee, Optimus comes to Earth. What he's experienced is failure, probably for the first time in his life, right? He's had to retreat, he's leaving the planet Cybertron. What's happened to him from that experience? When we meet him in 2007, he's a particular person, if you would. In 1994, he's not the same person. He still has growth to do between ‘94 and 2007. So the character arc for Optimus in this, and the fun for the audience is, when you first meet Optimus – and we've had this experience because we've watched it with audiences and we've heard them talk about it – they're like, “It's definitely Optimus, but there's something a little different…” At first, they're like, “Wait, what, who… what Optimus is this?” And by the end of the movie, Optimus has become the guy that you've recognized from the Bay movies. Emotional.

So, he's essentially putting together part of his mental makeup through this movie, and that's really different. So what happens is, as an experience, the arcs of the humans and the arc of Optimus are both going like that, and they combine near the end, which allows them to unite. In that way, this movie is completely unique to the other Transformer movies.

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Because Hasbro is a big part of this, in the pre-production process when you're figuring out the storyline and the characters you want to include, how much are they pulling you aside and saying, “We would really like you to include these characters or a bunch of new characters,” and how much is it you guys saying, “Well, we want to use the Terrorcons.”?

BONAVENTURA: Well, I'm going to answer that sort of secondarily by saying, look, we want to use new characters because you're going to get bored if you do the same thing over and over as a filmmaker, right? So, we're constantly listening to the fanbase, from the beginning of time. They're not shy about telling us which Transformer we should have done, or which one we screwed up, or any of those sorts of things.

I'll give you an example. We've been talking about the Beasts probably since movie three. How do you put them in this movie? How would it work? How do you put machines and animals together and make that feel natural? The Dinobots, obviously, were an element of that, but the truth is, they play a very small role and they don't talk, and they don't have the same requirements, if you would, that the Maximals do.

So, we work hand-in-hand with Hasbro, but it's not top-down there, it's more bottom-up. So, the guys we work with on the movie, with the designs and all that stuff that we're going back and forth about the colors, and all this stuff, they're the ones – as fans – that are saying to us, “Oh my God, can you imagine what we could do with so-and-so?” So we're really motivated by the fans within Hasbro more than that it's the management saying, “Do this.” Of course, they want to make toys, but it's their enthusiasm for particular characters [that] gets us excited about including them in the movie.

Who's stronger, Optimus Prime or Optimus Primal?

BONAVENTURA: Wow, that's a good– I don't know, I haven't thought about it! I mean, I tell you, it'd be one hell of a battle. I don't know. I'd like to answer by saying it should be a standoff, but I'm not sure. I’ve got to think about that.

You've seen pictures, obviously, of Primal, right? What's interesting about Primal this time around [is], when it was getting serious about whether we were going to put Maximals in it or not – and we're inching towards that blinking green sort of place you get – we reached out to one of the artists, Furio Tedeschi, who had worked with us on many, and we had thought, “He's the guy who should try to take on Primal.” Like, what's it going to look like? Because it's one thing in the comic. Obviously, the cartoon hasn't– it's not going to work in 3D, and in the demands of today's world versus the time when it was first made… And he drew essentially what you're seeing because the first one we saw, there was no question after seeing the first illustration that the Maximals were in this movie. It was just like, “That's a home run. That thing looks cool.”

Now, what environment can you put them in that makes sense, given Autobots have the ability to hide as cars within our society? Where the hell do you put it for the Beasts? So that's why we spent a lot of time in the jungle in this movie because we wanted to introduce animals, if you would, in an environment that you feel is logical for them to exist in. So, that’s when we go to Peru and we meet the Maximals. We're meeting in an environment that the integration of the Autobots – them in a movie sense, not necessarily visually, although visually, there's that collision too, but in a movie sense, it feels very natural.

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Image via Paramount Pictures

Every year since you've been doing the Transformers movies, VFX get better and better. Do you think the characters you're including in this film could have been done a few years ago, or do you think that the VFX has reached a place where you can do these other characters? I'm curious about how VFX have made the Transformers better.

BONAVENTURA: You know, the essential technology hasn't changed that much, but the ability to render it quicker, and I think painting and certain things, have definitely improved. And our understanding of the technology, which I think is actually in some ways more important, of like, “How do we utilize it?” We have a data bank that we've learned over time about what does look cool and what doesn't. Hopefully, anyway, we've figured it out [laughs].

So technology has made it easier to imagine more things. For instance, I don't know this for a fact, but I think it’s pretty solid ground, one of the trickiest things about Primal is it's supposed to be metal, but it's also supposed to feel like an animal, you know what I mean? It's supposed to have a hide and have hair, and if it doesn't look real– and what I mean by real is it has to feel animal-like and yet it can't conflict with the fact that it's metal. So that kind of thing is where, I think, visual effects have really improved is, you can get into the nuance of that in a way you couldn't before.

And also, we're constantly pushing it, too, you know? What you can accomplish with it is partly the imagination of the filmmaker. In some respects, it's our limitation that we don't know how far we can push it. So that, I think, is as big of a thing as we've come to understand it better, the technology we're dealing with.

Who do you think is going to be the breakout Transformer of this film?

BONAVENTURA: From the Autobot point of view, it'll be Mirage because Mirage is the new news. And Pete Davidson crushed the character. I mean, my God. From a Maximal point of view, there are two of them I think will stand out. Primal, played by Ron Perlman, as he was in the show, and Michelle Yeoh as Airazor. They're the two that carry the body of the dialogue, and therefore they're the ones you're going to know the most about. And I think, in a way, Primal is just such a cool character.

I'll give you an example, though, of where technology is improved is on Airazor. You know, when you look at a regular bird, especially an eagle, hawk, kind of falcon, the way feathers work is there's this constant movement and this kind of almost odd layering, right? Try figuring that out from a visual effects point of view, and it's both got to feel metal, but it's also got to feel real. How does it keep those two qualities? So it's an extraordinary achievement from a visual effects point of view. Visually, it really looks like something you haven't seen before because you haven't. It's the first time I think anyone's tried to do what we're trying to do with it. So I think those are the two Maximals that will pop off of it.

Everybody always loves the villain, and Peter Dinklage is fun at Scourge. But I think there’s always Optimus that people love, and Bumblebee love, but Mirage is a new character, and in this case, carries the relationship with the human. So it gives more talking.

Mirage in transformers rise of the beasts
Image via Paramount

You know I love Michael, but it was time for someone new to come in and do something. I've said to him, “I need you to do other stuff.”

BONAVENTURA: Listen, he brought us to the promised land. So we're always appreciative of that. Michael comes in and helps us with certain aspects of this, [and it] is really helpful to have his eye because he has an intrinsic understanding of this world. And also, when I think of visual effects, the quality of them, there are only two or three people in the world, and Michael has this incredible eye. You look at every movie he's done. We want him to put his eyes on our visual effects, and help us make them better.

I agree with you that he can find little things in a VFX shot that no one else sees. There are very few filmmakers on his level.

BONAVENTURA: There's no question. Listen, I hope I'm lucky enough to do another movie with him. I have some projects I actually recently texted him about. I'm like, “I might have something you'd be interested in.” So fingers crossed I get to work with him again.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts hits theaters on June 9.