As it turns out, Peter Cullen has some of the best job security in Hollywood. The long-time voice actor will soon return to the Transformers franchise to voice Optimus Prime. As Transformers producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura says, the Optimus role belongs to Cullen until he no longer wants it. That means when the Paramount franchise continues with Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, Cullen will be back in the saddle as the beloved Autobot.
“Peter Cullen brought this character to life with his amazing voice back in 1984. Is he returning? Absolutely. There’s, there’s no discussion without him really, you know, unless he didn’t want it. That would be the only way he would not be in here,” the producer said Tuesday in a press event for the Hasbro toy franchise.
It doesn’t stop there, either. di Bonaventura added then he’s going to be meeting with Cullen soon to pitch even more Optimus-centric projects in the near future in an attempt to grow the Transformers franchise even further.
“I know Optimus is near and dear to him. Steven and I are going to be talking soon about some of the stuff that he’s interested in bringing to the table and, and vice versa,” he added. “And so, yeah, he’s on board.”
Though Rise of the Beast will feature Optimus Prime and his Autobots and their nemeses in the Decepticons, the primary antagonists of the feature will be the Terracons and Predacons, two factions from the beloved Beast Wars spin-off.
“We wanted to expand the universe, you have the Autobots and the Decepticons, and I would say my new flair to this is the Terracons,” Steven Caple Jr. added. “The Terracons are a new threat to Optimus Prime, and it’s something I pride myself on when entering the franchise. I’ve done Rocky with Creed, and you bring the nostalgia that fans want, but also bring something they aren’t expecting, and the Terracons are that.”
“The Predacons in our film are more reptilian in nature. We’ve seen a few in the other Transformers films, but we’ve never had the chance to focus in on their logo, their tribe if you will, and we get to see another side to them,” Caple Jr. concluded. “It’s all about building a backstory to these characters that are more than just ‘let’s take over the world.'”
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is set in 1994 and will serve as a spiritual successor to 2018’s Bumblebee. It’s currently scheduled to hit theaters on June 24, 2022.
Cover photo by David Livingston/Getty Images