It's been confirmed today that Ron Perlman (Hellboy) will lend his voice to Optimus Primal in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. The actor actually has some experience with the role after playing this heroic leader of the Maximals in the Transformers: Power of the Primes animated series.
However, it was Garry Chalk who originally voiced the character in the Beast Wars: Transformers show.
Regardless, this 90s set adventure has definitely added a big name to its voice cast, and we're expecting more reveals to drop in the coming weeks. The movie will introduce the Maximals, Predacons, and Terrorcons to the existing battle on Earth between Autobots and Decepticons, and Optimus Primal is definitely a Transformer you should be excited about seeing on screen.
The captain of the spaceship Axalon, he once saved Optimus Prime's life, and while his beast mode was very nearly a bat, he chose to reject that in order to channel the far more powerful gorilla. How much of that backstory makes it into this movie remains to be seen, of course.
Directed by Steven Caple Jr., the movie's human cast will feature Anthony Ramos, Dominique Fishback and, as we recently revealed exclusively here on ComicBookMovie.com, Luna Lauren Velez.
There's a lot of excitement surrounding this latest live-action entry to the Transformers franchise, though we're still not sure how/if it will tie into both the original movies and 2018's Bumblebee.
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is set to be released in theaters on June 24, 2022.