The Transformers franchise has always been criticized for its lack of diversity, with white leads in every movie and a white director in charge of every film. However, the upcoming movie, Rise of the Beasts, represents a significant break from this tendency with a Black director and two people of color in the lead roles.
Steven Caple Jr., the director of Creed 2, was hired to helm the project and expressed his desire to cast people who look like him and who don’t usually get the opportunity to showcase their talent. Caple was inspired to become a filmmaker by the first Bad Boys movie, which had two Black lead actors in a big studio action flick, something that was unusual for the time.
Caple made it his mission to pay it forward and create a diverse cast of people of color for Rise of the Beasts. He cast up-and-comers like Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback in the lead roles, which is a significant departure from the franchise’s previous films.
Transforming the Franchise
Caple’s goal was to create a film that would inspire young people of color to pursue their dreams. He wanted to make a movie that would show a Puerto Rican kid from Brooklyn like Noah on the big screen, which would be inspiring for kids who feel like they don’t see themselves represented on the screen.
Caple believes that creating a diverse cast is essential, not only for the Transformers franchise but also for Hollywood in general. He wants to highlight the talents of people of color who haven’t had the opportunity to showcase their skills in the past.
Caple acknowledges that he is interested in casting the best actors for the roles, but he also wants to create a diverse cast of people of color, especially in something that hasn’t been highlighted in the franchise before.
The Bay Connection
Michael Bay, the director of the previous Transformers films, was instrumental in helping Caple get up to speed on the production’s complexities. Bay read the script and advised Caple on how to deal with the fun complicating factors of working on a production like this one.
Bay warned Caple about the cost of using many visual effects, especially when showing the robots’ emotional moments, which Caple wanted to capture. Bay advised Caple to bring humans into the film and focus on them to balance out the costs of the robots’ emotional moments.
Caple took Bay’s advice to heart and figured out a way to balance the emotion and action in the movie. He wanted to capture the robots’ emotions while also keeping the costs down.
Rise of the Beasts represents a significant break from the Transformers franchise’s previous tendency to cast only white leads and have a white director. The film’s director, Steven Caple Jr., believes that creating a diverse cast is essential to inspire young people of color to pursue their dreams. Caple cast up-and-comers like Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback in the lead roles, both people of color who will bring something new to the franchise. Michael Bay, the director of the previous Transformers films, played a significant role in advising Caple on how to balance the emotional moments with the action scenes while keeping the costs down.
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