A piece of fan art for Transformers: Rise of the Beasts imagines what one of the lead Maximals of the film, Airazor, could look like. The next installment of the Transformers film franchise is set to arrive in Summer 2023 with a sequel to the soft reboot prequel Bumblebee. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts will see the current team of Autobots, led by Optimus Prime, team up with the Maximals, Transformers who take the form of animals led by Optimus Primal.
The film is intended to be the first in a new trilogy and will serve as an adaptation of sorts of the Transformers: Beast Wars cartoon series that aired in the 90s and, in a meta nod, the film will also take place during this time period. Beast Wars was a direct sequel to the original G1 Transformers cartoon and followed the battles between the ancestors of the Autobots and Decepticons, the Maximals and the Predacons respectively. The series has been highly regarded by fans for its high quality of storytelling and for expanding the Transformers mythos beyond the simplicity of the original Saturday morning cartoon.
Digital artist Diamonddead has crafted a piece of fan art for Transformers: Rise of the Beasts that imagines what one of the main Maximals, Airazor, may look like in the upcoming film. The art is a profile of a peregrine falcon, Airazor’s usual chosen alt mode that was featured in the cartoon. However, the right side of the falcon is obscured in shadow and has a distinctly more robotic design, hinting at the Cybertronian that resides inside the animal casing. Check out the post below:
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The piece is cleverly put together and aligns with the tagline that has stuck with the Transformers franchise throughout its almost 40-year history, “More than meets the eye”. The Cybertronian design of the falcon may be a more figurative statement for the hidden cybertronic nature of the character than literal as the Maximals alt modes were convincing as the animals they were intended to be as opposed to a group like the Dinobots, who were somewhat crude robotic facsimiles of prehistoric dinosaurs. Indeed, the overly designed falcon resembles something more in line with Michael Bay’s original films as opposed to the more simplified, G1 designs that Bumblebee reintroduced.
Beast Wars dramatically reimagined the central concept of the Transformers series in switching up the Cybertronians gimmick of turning into vehicles to turning into animals. While this was initially met with resistance by fans, it turned out to be just the thing to revitalize the series after something of a stall following the end of the G1 cartoon. Likewise, Michael Bay’s series of films were thought to have stayed way past their welcome, as Transformers: The Last Knight not only received the franchise's usual dire reviews but underperformed at the box office, leading to Bumblebee shifting from being a prequel to a full reboot that reconnected the franchise with its 80’s roots. With Paramount’s plans for Transformers: Rise of the Beasts to kick off a whole new trilogy of films, it’s clear the studio is hoping for history to repeat itself in a move that is sure to please fans by bringing the original Transformers together with their Beast counterparts. This fan art is already an indication of how eager fans are to see this corner of the Transformers mythos finally adapted to the big screen, which is hoped to continue the increased quality that Bumblebee bought to the table.
Source: @diamonddead
