How Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts Director Was Inspired To Make A More Diverse Robot Blockbuster
Before Rise of the Beasts, Transformers was an exceedingly white franchise, with white leads in every movie and a white guy in the director's chair every time out. Rise of the Beasts represents a major break from that franchise tendency, though, with a Black director and two people of color in the lead roles. It's a pleasantly surprising shift, and it began with the hiring of Creed 2 director Steven Caple Jr. to sit behind the camera.
«I'm trying to cast people who look like me, and who just don't get the opportunity to be in this position and/or be on these platforms and showcase our talent,» Caple told GameSpot.
As it turns out, one of the people who had a hand in inspiring Caple to become a filmmaker in the first place was the white guy who directed five of the not-diverse previous Transformers flicks, Michael Bay. It was the first Bad Boys film that gave Caple that initial spark--because it was a big studio action flick with two Black lead actors.
«When I saw Will Smith and Martin Lawrence together in a big action movie--because usually those buddy cop films, it's like Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte. It's like a biracial friendship, you know. And when I saw those two together, I was a kid and I was like, 'Wait, what? These dudes are action heroes! Like, they're so cool, they're funny, they don't disappear halfway through the movie.' And that made me pick up a camera and literally go outside and reenact Bad Boys.»
Naturally, it made sense to Caple to pay it forward once he was in the position to do so, and so now we have a Transformers film with up-and-comers like Hamilton star Anthony Ramos and Swarm star Dominique Fishback in the lead roles.
«So now I have that situation and opportunity to be like, there's a kid in
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