Ron Perlman will Once Again Voice Optimus Primal in Transformers Rise of the Beasts

I can hear Garry Chalk grumbling in frustration.

I love Ron Perlman

God, I hope he sounds more excited to be there this time around. I love Ron Perlman, but you can tell when he's just doing a role for paycheck.

Ron Pearlman is great in so many things, but not this. I hated his Optimus Primal. It was so lackluster and boring.

Betting Paramount will not use the line "Well isn't that just prime."

Welp, I already have the feeling that I will be going into the theaters with as much "enthusiasm" as I did with The Last Knight for this one.

Here's hoping I don't feel like I was rejected for a role for MST3K after watching this one.

They didn't get Garry Chalk because they never even reached out to him.

I'm a huge Perlman fan, and was really disappointed with how flat his Primal was in PotP, but I think we can blame that on the voice direction (that show managed to make Mark Hamill sound bored). As bad as the live-actions movies can be, we at least usually get some energy from the VAs when they're given lines (not counting the bland platitudes Optimus gets stuck with when he's not snarling in rage). A whole new creative team is giving me some optimism, I loved Bumblebee, and apparently they want this to be more BB than Bay, so fingers crossed.

I'm torn here. Perlman is a fun actor to listen to. He was bad in PotP, because that was a terrible show, as was the voice directing, and sound mixing, among other things. Chalk will always be Optimus Primal to me, and I love seeing him in film roles such as Godzilla (2014), and Sonic (2020). However, I was at Botcon 2004 in Pasadena when rumblings of the first film were going around. Cullen knew nothing about it, but I remember the thunderous applause when a fan said if they don't get him to voice Optimus Prime, there would be *riots* (figuratively I'm sure...) ...oh boy, that has not aged well....

Anyway... Paramount didn't get Welker to do Megatron, and despite some fans disappointment, Hugo Weaving did well I thought (even if he himself thought it was stupid and bounced after his 3 picture deal was done). And well...they did get Welker eventually...

As much of an Original Series fan as I am, I see both sides of this, I really want to see Garry Chalk get a good solid role in a larger motion picture, but I know why Paramount made the choice they did. Will this be met with the same anger and disappointmentas if Cullen had been passed up? For some people yes absolutely, for some, maybe not. I have the greatest of respect for the original BW cast. They not only did great work, they are great people as well. I wish them all continued success in the industry, even if it doesn't happen to be in this specific film.

Sabrblade wrote:They didn't get Garry Chalk because they never even reached out to him.

Oh, that's a real bummer. I love Perlman, but it's definitely soured if Chalk wasn't even given the chance. I know schedules conflict and such, and I can't really imagine it was a budget or union thing like the Netflix series. I guess they just wanted the star power...

Rodimus Knight wrote:Ron Pearlman is great in so many things, but not this. I hated his Optimus Primal. It was so lackluster and boring.

Betting Paramount will not use the line "Well isn't that just prime."

To play the devil's advocate, everyone in Prime Wars except for Megatron was lackluster and boring, so maybe his Primal will be better in a big budget movie with better voice direction.

If Optimus Primal been hanging out on Earth long before the Autobots,it makes sense to use Ron Perlman's veteran sounding voice.

Eh, he’s no Gary, but Paramount could’ve done much worse.

I have to say I hate Ron Perlman. But only because I just watched "Sons of Anarchy" and he was totally awesome in portraying such a despicable character as Clay Monroe.

He must have really enjoyed voicing Primal in Power of the Primes to want to reprise the role.

bluecatcinema wrote:He must have really enjoyed voicing Primal in Power of the Primes to want to reprise the role.

I'd actually be surprised if he even remembered it. It was probably more the money, and just another chance to act than anything.

TulioDude wrote:If Optimus Primal been hanging out on Earth long before the Autobots,it makes sense to use Ron Perlman's veteran sounding voice.

But the autobots are even older, so how does that comment make any sense.

william-james88 wrote:

TulioDude wrote:If Optimus Primal been hanging out on Earth long before the Autobots,it makes sense to use Ron Perlman's veteran sounding voice.

But the autobots are even older, so how does that comment make any sense.

We already have the precedent with Cyberverse with the All Spark creating Cheetor to serve as its Guardian

william-james88 wrote:

TulioDude wrote:If Optimus Primal been hanging out on Earth long before the Autobots,it makes sense to use Ron Perlman's veteran sounding voice.

But the autobots are even older, so how does that comment make any sense.

I mean it's already been described in interviews that the Maximals are Ancient, so it seems that in this film it's the other way around.

Well, this will be interesting.

I am very sad they didn't even ask Chalk, he's very disappointed he wasn't even considered.

At the same time, I'm curious to see how Perlman's voice comes out. Marnocha did a great Megatron in Prime Wars but then they neutered all his best parts for WFC. Foushee does a great Cyberverse Optimus, but is terrible in WFC. I hope movie Perlman is far better than Prime Wars Perlman

Deadput wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

TulioDude wrote:If Optimus Primal been hanging out on Earth long before the Autobots,it makes sense to use Ron Perlman's veteran sounding voice.

But the autobots are even older, so how does that comment make any sense.

I mean it's already been described in interviews that the Maximals are Ancient, so it seems that in this film it's the other way around.

Maybe the Maximals are still from the future, but they never went back there, so they've been sitting around on Earth for millions of years so they're comparatively ancient

GeekyGamer Gal wrote:Welp, I already have the feeling that I will be going into the theaters with as much "enthusiasm" as I did with The Last Knight for this one.

Then don't go. Hit these idiots in the only spot they care about: their bottom line. A lot of others did so with TLK, and it barely crossed $100 million upon release, thus deeming it a failure financially. (I'm not sure what the final box office was, don't really care.) The end result was them abandoning the 3rd film in the 2nd trilogy. And even though I was kinda happy that they finally got the point, I still would have liked to see the story finished. Just with better human characters and better scenes for the TFs.

Rodimus Prime wrote:And even though I was kinda happy that they finally got the point, I still would have liked to see the story finished. Just with better human characters and better scenes for the TFs.

A comic conclusion would be the best thing we could get and would likely be a better conclusion than what a "TF6" sequel to TLK would give us if it actually gave one.

Sabrblade wrote:I can hear Garry Chalk grumbling in frustration.

He did reach out to us specifically on Facebook (commented on the article I wrote) and... yeah...:

I was not cast in the movie . Why I don’t know. I am a Canadian and I don’t have the cachet of Ron . I think they went with him because of the prime trilogy and forgot I created the character for the series . It saddens me I am not doing the film but Ron is good .

Rodimus Prime wrote:I still would have liked to see the story finished. Just with better human characters and better scenes for the TFs.

Pop in the last 2 episodes of Transformers Prime season 2 and you pretty much have exactly what you are asking for. Nothing derived from Transformers The Last Knight could ever be better than that.

william-james88 wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:I still would have liked to see the story finished. Just with better human characters and better scenes for the TFs.

Pop in the last 2 episodes of Transformers Prime season 2 and you pretty much have exactly what you are asking for. Nothing derived from Transformers The Last Knight could ever be better than that.

I'd argue that they were definitely going a different direction than Prime with the same base premise of Unicron is Earth, but in this case he was good or content, not aggressive until provoked. I still want to see some conclusion to that, I hate that the one movie that provided a proper cliffhanger didn't follow through.

Maybe a comic someday

william-james88 wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:I still would have liked to see the story finished. Just with better human characters and better scenes for the TFs.

Pop in the last 2 episodes of Transformers Prime season 2 and you pretty much have exactly what you are asking for. Nothing derived from Transformers The Last Knight could ever be better than that.

That doesn't mean the Bayverse story shouldn't have its own ending, even if it's similar to Prime. And I agree with D-Max, it was made to seem that Unicron wasn't evil in this universe, by the way Quintessa was portrayed and what she wanted to do. Besides, I don't see how Unicron could be destroyed anyway, without destroying Earth. I actually can't remember how Prime season 2 finished, I need to go back and watch it. It's been almost 10 years since I've seen it.

Rodimus Prime wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:I still would have liked to see the story finished. Just with better human characters and better scenes for the TFs.

Pop in the last 2 episodes of Transformers Prime season 2 and you pretty much have exactly what you are asking for. Nothing derived from Transformers The Last Knight could ever be better than that.

That doesn't mean the Bayverse story shouldn't have its own ending, even if it's similar to Prime. And I agree with D-Max, it was made to seem that Unicron wasn't evil in this universe, by the way Quintessa was portrayed and what she wanted to do. Besides, I don't see how Unicron could be destroyed anyway, without destroying Earth. I actually can't remember how Prime season 2 finished, I need to go back and watch it. It's been almost 10 years since I've seen it.

It's the cliffhanger ending where the Autobots abandon their base just before it's blown up by the Nemesis and Optimus is left for dead.

Sabrblade wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:I still would have liked to see the story finished. Just with better human characters and better scenes for the TFs.

Pop in the last 2 episodes of Transformers Prime season 2 and you pretty much have exactly what you are asking for. Nothing derived from Transformers The Last Knight could ever be better than that.

That doesn't mean the Bayverse story shouldn't have its own ending, even if it's similar to Prime. And I agree with D-Max, it was made to seem that Unicron wasn't evil in this universe, by the way Quintessa was portrayed and what she wanted to do. Besides, I don't see how Unicron could be destroyed anyway, without destroying Earth. I actually can't remember how Prime season 2 finished, I need to go back and watch it. It's been almost 10 years since I've seen it.

It's the cliffhanger ending where the Autobots abandon their base just before it's blown up by the Nemesis and Optimus is left for dead.

Unicron was Season 1 right? Where Megatron lead the Autobots into the depths of Unicron and Prime used the Matrix to "kill" him, but lost his memories?

Autobot N wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:I still would have liked to see the story finished. Just with better human characters and better scenes for the TFs.

Pop in the last 2 episodes of Transformers Prime season 2 and you pretty much have exactly what you are asking for. Nothing derived from Transformers The Last Knight could ever be better than that.

That doesn't mean the Bayverse story shouldn't have its own ending, even if it's similar to Prime. And I agree with D-Max, it was made to seem that Unicron wasn't evil in this universe, by the way Quintessa was portrayed and what she wanted to do. Besides, I don't see how Unicron could be destroyed anyway, without destroying Earth. I actually can't remember how Prime season 2 finished, I need to go back and watch it. It's been almost 10 years since I've seen it.

It's the cliffhanger ending where the Autobots abandon their base just before it's blown up by the Nemesis and Optimus is left for dead.

Unicron was Season 1 right? Where Megatron lead the Autobots into the depths of Unicron and Prime used the Matrix to "kill" him, but lost his memories?

Correct. And that too was a cliffhanger ending.

I'm fine with Ron getting the role and sure he will do fine...I am however disappointed that they didn't approach Chalk at all when the stars were aligned for him to possibly get the role with Canada involved and all, especially as a Canadian myself who would love to see some Canadian representation.

Seems like we will never get a scene of Cullen and Chalk talking to each other on the big screen.

Like I always thought, doesn't matter if Bay is involved or not when the rest of the clowns at Paramount still call the shots.


Ideally maybe they can cast Chalk as Primal after the news reactions with Ron getting to voice another character in the film, like Scourge because when I said Ron would probably do just fine as Primal it would probably be the same with just about any other deep-voiced character they could cast him as. A far fetched hope but I can dream regardless if that's dumb to be optimistic after 6 films now.

Deadput wrote:I'm fine with Ron getting the role and sure he will do fine...I am however disappointed that they didn't approach Chalk at all when the stars were aligned for him to possibly get the role with Canada involved and all, especially as a Canadian myself who would love to see some Canadian representation.

Seems like we will never get a scene of Cullen and Chalk talking to each other on the big screen.

Like I always thought, doesn't matter if Bay is involved or not when the rest of the clowns at Paramount still call the shots.


Ideally maybe they can cast Chalk as Primal after the news reactions with Ron getting to voice another character in the film, like Scourge because when I said Ron would probably do just fine as Primal it would probably be the same with just about any other deep-voiced character they could cast him as. A far fetched hope but I can dream regardless if that's dumb to be optimistic after 6 films now.

Perlman would probably be fantastic and better suited as Scourge, thats a great idea
I only say so because of his work as Slade in Teen Titans and The Lich (not sure if im spelling that right) in Adventure Time
Probably won't happen sadly, but wouldve been pretty perfect

Yeah Ron's had good roles over the years, he's the next best choice after Chalk for sure.

Deadput wrote:Yeah Ron's had good roles over the years, he's the next best choice after Chalk for sure.

Little known fact is that Ron Perlman also has a silly side to himself, in that nearly all of his Disney roles have been silly characters.

Sabrblade wrote:

Deadput wrote:Yeah Ron's had good roles over the years, he's the next best choice after Chalk for sure.

Little known fact is that Ron Perlman also has a silly side to himself, in that nearly all of his Disney roles have been silly characters.

Right, for those who are unfamilier with Ron, I wouldn't watch only his previous attempt at Primal and judge final conclusions there since most of the voice work in the Machinima series was pretty eh

They made friggen Mark Hamil sound bland, the guy who voices The Joker! (Mark Hamil would be a good choice in this film as well I think)

Watching some of his other roles will show why he's a decent choice regardless of the character he's going to play in the new film.

Shooting is well underway in Montreal at the moment for the seventh Bayverse Transformers film (see the logo on the chair below). An extra made a report on what scene they were shooting. The scene involved the character Noah, played by Ramos, goe to an office building for either a job interview or a meeting, accompanied by his younger brother. He is then told that there was some confusion and this was not the scheduled time.

And that's the scene. It was paraphrased/translated from this report on the French Transformers fan site. This does tell us that while there are a whole ton of bots in this film, there will still be time dedicated to the human characters and how they go about their lives, like we saw in the Bumblebee movie.

This is cool and all, but will you Seibertron guys @ news put stuff please under spoilers or some devision where I don't get to see all things TF7 for 12 straight months?

noctorro wrote:This is cool and all, but will you Seibertron guys @ news put stuff please under spoilers or some devision where I don't get to see all things TF7 for 12 straight months?

It's a news site, from here on out we will simply report everything about the film and we can't determine what is a spoiler for you or not. So be prepared for seeing everything regarding this movie. If we get an image of unicron from a TF7 concept art or storyboard or whatever, we sill definitely share it here on the site with no spoiler warning.

Hiya guys, I'm new to the forum and always wanted to join one. I have just started my own Transformers news and updates video on YouTube and would be so grateful for all your feed back. I was nervous doing this video but I do get better as the video goes on. My YouTube channel is NicholasPrime7.

I'm not asking for any likes or subscriptions, only feedback but feel free to do as you please.

Thank you guys.

This is the link for the video, What we know about Transformers Rise of the Beasts so far https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_OVx6tSotM&t=283s

BTW CAN'T WAIT FOR THIS FRICKING MOVIE!!!

Ptotoman posted an image taken in Montreal of some Porches. Those present at the news conference for Transformers 7 Rise of the Beasts have said that the cars in this image look exactly like what was shown to them when Mirage was introduced. That's right, Mirage, not Jazz. And that's exactly what Protoman states in the Tweet that included this image.

While people are hopeful that it means that Hasbro got the Porche license for toys, please remember that movie licenses and toy licenses are independent. As we saw with Dino (the previous "Mirage), the Ferrari License that was obtained for the film did not translate to a Ferrari License for toys.

Looking nice.
I hope they keep Mirage a separate character from Dino.

Day 555 of waiting for Transformers Armada Masterpiece news.

EDIT:Dang,double post

william-james88 wrote:That's right, Mirage, not Jazz.

I guess they don't want to use,for now,characters that were on the original 2007 film.

TulioDude wrote:EDIT:Dang,double post

william-james88 wrote:That's right, Mirage, not Jazz.

I guess they don't want to use,for now,characters that were on the original 2007 film.

That's pretty much it, so it won't interfere with the plot of the 07 film

I'm incredibly confused over how to feel about this. I'm excited because Bumblebee was good but I have a sense of dread that it's going to go back to how the bayformers style of movies and hearing classic character names attached to completely different alt-modes is adding to the bad feels.

If Mirage is going to be a "shapeshifter" and take on other altmode forms anyways I feel like the complaints about him being a Porche is kinda moot even if it ends up being his main alt mode.

Plus we don't know what he will look like in robot mode, frankly when it comes to making a character look classic it's probably preferable if the focus is on the robot mode and general color scheme than the vehicle mode, I mean heck this happens with most characters all the time in the franchise.

The colors invoke Mirage well enough just as much as they would with Jazz, the two of them did both have white/blue in the first place, It's not like G1 Porche Jazz ever had this car's color layout either, the only direct things in common so far is that they are both Porche cars.


Mirage being a Porche here doesn't suddenly mean that Jazz as a Porche can't show up in a future movie which is also presuming Jazz isn't in this movie in the first place (I don't think we know either way) since it's not like we got the listing of the entire cast, we only have 4 announced Autobots (not including Maximals) so far and I find it unlikely that it's just going to be the 4 of them.

Maybe he'll get ripped in half too....
As long as they don't depict him ridiculously like they did in 2007. "Yo yo yo, this be lookin' like a good place to crash!"

Somehow, even when Bay was depicting Autobots with the most obnoxious, over-the-top, stereotypical personalities, they STILL managed to strip them of any uniqueness or genuine character.

DeathReviews wrote:Maybe he'll get ripped in half too....

Hey if he is at least an actual character like the character is so far to be described as then him dying is probably fine enough as long as it's a good death with an actual purpose in the film, when it comes to violent action movies like this not every character can make it out especially since reboot or not this will be several character's debut film. (Although that depends if Mirage is still Dino or not which would also presume this isn't part of a reboot anyways)


(Although I will give 2007 Jazz some credit, he at least had a tad of personality in the few lines he had as well as having some physical expression with his body language, overall I find him to be one of the most faithful Bay-film versions in comparison to the G1 counterpart, still a tad underused in 2007.)

I really wish they'd just come up with new names rather than use old ones if the model isn't going to be close to the original presentation (doesn't have to be exact)- Exceptions being Megatron cause no way a transforming toy gun gets sold in the US anymore and characters like Prime and Bumble Bee that have had so many different iterations now that for someone that version is their version. Even "To keep the trademark" is hollow given there is a Mirage exclusive coming out through Amazon which should satisfy trademark law.

I love G1, grew up with it, but honestly start making some new stuff already, or at least revisit stuff that hasn't been done to death in the last 10 years, which hopefully the Beast stuff in this film does.

-Still want some more Throttlebots though- Freeway has only had the one figure ever, or how about Searchlight who is in the same boat but is not a jerk.

Deadput wrote:Although that depends if Mirage is still Dino or not which would also presume this isn't part of a reboot anyways

At some point during these -prequel/reboot/TF continuity hasn't mattered ever anyway, so whatever they are going to be called- they are going to have to have everyone but Bumblebee go back to space. So maybe a line that Mirage is returning to his home planet at the end of the film?

Well, at least they are consistent with just assigning names to characters at random.

Fires_Of_Inferno wrote:I'm incredibly confused over how to feel about this. I'm excited because Bumblebee was good but I have a sense of dread that it's going to go back to how the bayformers style of movies and hearing classic character names attached to completely different alt-modes is adding to the bad feels.

Quoted for truth.
Bumblebee was a nice, simple little movie.
Now I'm afraid we're headed back to the "throw everything on the screen all at once" style of film making.