There's only one month left until audiences see Transformers in theaters once again with Steven Caple Jr's Rise of the Beasts. A lot is riding on the film as it marks a reboot of the blockbuster franchise helmed for years by Michael Bay. Collider has learned, however, that this won't be quite as long of a cinematic affair as those films were. As the Maximals and Predacons join the war between the bots on Earth, fans can expect a brisk 1 hour and 57-minute adventure (not including the credits), matching that of the Jeff Bridges classic The Big Lebowski, just for for reference.

That's a pretty stark departure from Bay's movies which all cracked the 2-hour mark and only seemed to get longer as the franchise expanded, capping out at 2 hours and 45 minutes for Transformers: Age of Extinction. That said, the franchise has learned to stick to more trimmed-down, contained films since then. 2018's Bumblebee, the last film in the franchise before the upcoming Rise of the Beasts, came in three minutes shorter than Caple Jr's film will. While it might be a tough ask for the film to squeeze in so many new animal-themed Transformers, as well as Pete Davidson's new Autobot spy Mirage, it should keep the plot rolling and the action flowing for anyone eager to see these bots battle on the big screen again.

It's not just Bay's films that Rise of the Beasts beats out in runtime. While most films fall in that sweet spot of around 100 to 120 minutes, blockbuster franchises tend to live on the longer side. It does, however, make for a more convincing ask for fans to jump back on the Transformers bandwagon with a more digestible film length. Part of it also comes from the change in approach as noted by franchise producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura. There's a conscious effort to make this film, and the potential future installments after it, more focused on the character arcs of its new human protagonists, played by Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback, even the Transformers itself rather than simply creating lengthy, eye-popping action setpieces of Bay's movies.

Transformers-Rise-of-the-Beasts-2023-Anthony-Ramos
Image via Paramount Pictures

RELATED: The Autobots Rise Up in New Character Posters for 'Transformers: Rise of the Beasts'

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts Will Pack Plenty Into Its Under 2-Hour Runtime

That's not to say action will take a back seat, of course, as the film adapts the fan-favorite Beast Wars saga. Rise of the Beasts will see ex-military tech expert-turned-family man Noah Diaz (Ramos) and artifact researcher Elena Wallace (Fishback) taken on a journey to save the world with the Autobots that will bring them into conflict with the incoming Maximals, Predacons, and Terrorcons. Audiences will also see the big screen debut of one of the franchise's most iconic and frightening villains - Unicron. Throughout the Transformers cartoon, there was no threat bigger, figuratively and literally, than this massive bot with the power to consume realities. This is all to say there will be no shortage of spectacle within that sub-2-hour runtime.

An all-star cast is also set to voice the bots, including Peter Cullen returning to voice Optimus Prime once again and Ron Perlman opposite him as Optimus Primal. Peter Dinklage, Liza Koshy, Michelle Yeoh, Cristo Fernández, John DiMaggio, David Sobolov, and Michaela Jaé Rodriguez are also on to lend their voices with Luna Lauren Vélez and Tobe Nwigwe also appearing in live-action.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts releases in theaters on June 9. Check out the trailer below: