Transformers: Rise of the Beasts director unpacks that game-changing ending (SPOILERS)

MAJOR SPOILERS for Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. Consider yourself warned. The latest installment of the long-running Transformers franchise is now playing in theaters, but the ending of Rise of the Beasts could shake up the series in a major way.

The ending of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts found Noah Diaz (Anthony Ramos) being offered a job with G.I. Joe, setting the stage for a major crossover between the two Hasbro properties. It’s something which has happened in comic-books, but fans were still surprised when it unfolded on the big-screen. Just how did the Transformers/G.I. Joe crossover come to be? Turns out that director Steven Caple Jr. just included it in the draft, much to the surprise of the studio.

“So, in the beginning, I got the script, and I started developing Noah’s [Anthony Ramos] storyline,” Steven Caple Jr. told THR. “If you remember from the film, he was having trouble getting a job, and part of the reason was because of his military background. So, by the end of the film, I thought it would be interesting if he actually does get a job and his brother’s healthcare gets taken care of. But I wanted it to be a military organization and/or the government, and when doing so, the idea of Sector Seven and these other operations just didn’t really have enough weight.” Caple Jr. recalled a comic-book crossover between G.I. Joe and Transformers and brought it to the attention of producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Mark Vahradian.

I just saw the sparkle in Lorenzo’s eyes. He was really excited about it. He was like, “This could be crazy. This is good. I dig this.” He’s heard about it before, but never tried it. And he was like, “Maybe you don’t pitch it to the studio. Maybe you just write it in the script and go for it. Let them read your draft of the film and see how they react.” And that’s what we did. 

The studio was keen on the idea, but it took almost two years to run through the whole system and get everyone to sign off. “I had to talk to all the producers and let them know the vision or direction I was going in,” Steven Caple Jr. said. “I didn’t know all of it at the moment when I had first pitched it or when they first read it, but throughout the process of making this movie, it started to get deeper and deeper. So I knew a little bit more of the direction I wanted to go in with the Joes, but the studio was on board since the beginning. It just took a while to get all the parties on board and settled.” It remains to be seen how this big crossover will pay off, but for Caple Jr., the possibilities are endless. The director hinted that perhaps they’d be able to use G.I. Joe characters who haven’t been featured as much as Snakes Eyes and Duke.

“There’s different series and editions and different factions of G.I. Joe as well. There’s G.I. Joe: Renegades and different branches of it, too. So I started to play with that, and I pitched versions of it to the studio and the producers,” Caple Jr. said. “Transformers movies have scope and size, but we’ve been spending a lot of time here on Earth, so I just think there’s more out there. Even in the graphic novels for Transformers, there’s other planets and things like that, and I was like, ‘We’re just thinking too small.’ So, if we’re going to do movie number eight and nine and ten, maybe there’s a way to make this all more expansive and branch out.“

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is now playing in theaters, so be sure to check out a review from our own Eric Walkuski and let us know what you thought of the film as well.

What did you think of the ending to Transformers: Rise of the Beasts? Was the G.I. Joe reveal a surprise?