Transformers: Rise of the Beasts has a particularly wild deep-cut Maximals cameo

polygon.com:

Optimus Primal, Cheetor, Rhinox, Airazor — for legacy fans of the Transformers franchise’s Beast Wars animated TV series, these are household Maximal names. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts adapts them to live action for the first time ever, but it also brings in a fifth Maximal, and his inclusion in this movie is a pretty bonkers deep cut. Someone behind this movie is clearly a serious Transformers lore specialist — this particular Maximal is a reference to Transformers convention fiction from the beginning of the millennium.

The gorilla-shaped Optimus Primal (Ron Perlman) leads the Maximals for most ofRise of the Beasts, but in its opening scene, he’s second-in-command to a second metal gorilla named Apelinq. That Maximal is surprisingly distinctive, a different design from Optimus Primal’s gorilla model — he has a white mohawk, metal tusks, and intimidating blades tucked into his forearms.

Voiced by David Sobolov (who also voiced Battletrap and Rhinox in this film, as well as the original Beast Wars cartoon’s Depth Charge), Apelinq passes the mantle of Maximal leadership onto the smaller Optimus Primal so Apelinq can stall their enemy Transformer Scourge (Peter Dinklage), and send the other Maximals to safety with the Transwarp Key, a McGuffin Scourge wants on behalf of his planet-eating master Unicron (Colman Domingo).

Apelinq’s appearance is a shocking but welcome feature-film debut for a character who first appeared as a toy exclusive to BotCon 2000. If Rise of the Beasts’ five credited screenwriters felt that a different gorilla character should precede Optimus Primal as the Maximals’ leader, Apelinq is an obvious but obscure choice. The original Apelinq was a redeco of 1998’s Transmetal Optimus Primal in black,