'Transformers: Rise of the Beasts' brings new characters to franchise

Autobots took over London's Leicester Square on Wednesday as the latest instalment in the Transformers film franchise held its European premiere.

Huge statues of the film's characters, Autobot leader Optimus Prime and Maximal leader Optimus Primal, towered over the red carpet where cast members Anthony Ramos, Dominique Fishback and Tobe Nwigwe premiered Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.

Set in 1994, the Paramount Pictures movie is the seventh instalment in the series based on the popular Hasbro toys, and is a sequel to 2018 movie Bumblebee. It brings in a new faction of Transformers, the Maximals, who join forces with the Autobots to fight off planet-eating villain Unicron.

“When you're on movie number seven, you're like, what can we bring fresh and what can we bring new to the table?" director Steven Caple Jr told Reuters.

Ramos and Fishback play unemployed former military electronics expert Noah and artefact researcher Elena respectively, a duo who are unknown to each other but are both drawn into the battle for Earth.

“We had the fans (asking) ’why do we need the humans, why do we need the humans?’ So Anthony and I along with Steven, we said ‘ok how can we make the humans really necessary? How do we do that?’ And so we did our best to bring that home,” Fishback said on Noah and Elena's key roles in the movie.

Asked about performing against computer-generated Autobots for much of the film, Ramos said: “It was interesting... you do a whole scene, emotional scenes to no one, you just use your imagination.”

The premiere took place days after Hollywood's actors union voted to authorise a strike if contract talks break down, turning up the heat on film and television studios already grappling with a month-long work stoppage by writers.

"Everything evolves over time and you learn more and as streaming services become really prominent in our society, I think things have to change," Fishback said when asked about the situation.

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