Scourge

The next character seen in the Transformers: Rise of the Beasts trailer is the new big bad, the threat Optimus Primal describes as “nothing like you have ever faced before”: Scourge, who’s spotted as he’s strangling poor Bumblebee. In the movie, Scourge will be voiced by Peter Dinklage, and will be a trophy hunter capable of transforming into a logging semi truck, a Peterbilt 359. Chances are that even Scourge is a time traveler, as he originally serves a master who’s not yet been born in the 1990s, the movie setting. Let’s see together.

Scourge was born on planet Cybertron around 2005, Earth time, when the cybernetic god Unicron collected what remained of the body of a deceased Decepticon named Shrapnel and transformed it into a hyper-evolved Cybertronian, Scourge. His main purpose since his birth was to serve Galvatron, and that he did as his main hunter and tracker, second only to Cyclonus in the Decepticon hierarchy. Scourge was also the leader of the Sweeps, a fleet of minions physically identical to him, albeit on a smaller scale. Scourge and his Sweeps served Galvatron at the best of their capacity, and they were pretty formidable indeed, as no Autobot could escape from them for long… but Scourge knew all too well that the glory days for the Decepticons were over, and that all their victories weren’t their own: the Decepticons belonged to Unicron, and to him alone. The Great War went on, with its historical factions being now led by Galvatron and Rodimus Prime, and Scourge played his part… but started to become quite doubtful of the god he served and owed his life to, as in his hunger Unicron consumed Cyberton’s moons. Seeking a way out of his servitude to Unicron, Galvatron devised a plan to kill him, one that he shared only with his most trusted lieutenants, Cyclonus and Scourge. The three of them would have built a massive cannon to take the god out, but to do it away from prying eyes they would have traveled back in time, to the beginning of the Great War on Earth, so that they would have had Cybertronian technology to build their weapon at disposal, but they would have been safe from Unicron’s spies. The three Decepticons arrived to 1986, where they began their work and started harvesting the components they needed: much to their pleasure, they were virtually invincible for the Autobots of that time, and they could take whatever they wanted and complete their work undisturbed… until Galvatron realized his plan was terribly flawed.

The three Decepticons easily defeated Megatron and Soundwave and wrestled control of their group from them, then ordered the Constructicons to build their destructive device, ready to fire it in 2006. In the meanwhile, the defeated Autobots allied themselves with Megatron and managed to capture Scourge, planning to exchange him with one of their own, Jazz: thanks to Starscream‘s betrayal, however, also this plan failed, and the past Cybertronians were defeated again. Everything was going according to plan, until Starscream tried to destroy the cannon, only to be killed by Galvatron… who realized that in his reality Starscream wasn’t destined to die in 1986, and that he must have traveled to another dimension: everything he would have done there, would have not impacted his future. In reality, the Starscream he had killed was a disguised Skywarp, controlled by Hot Rod, Kup and Blurr sent back in time by Unicron to stop them. As the trio came back to their time, they were harshly punished by their lord and master, who however decided to keep them alive, as he found them useful as much as mildly entertaining. Scourge kept fighting the war for Unicron, until Rodimus Prime destroyed the mad god using the Matrix: free at last, the Decepticons could finally fight for their own, and the Great War resumed as it should have. When Galvatron traveled back in time once again, he left the team’s command to Shockwave, ordering Scourge and Cyclonus to serve him as if it was him. This was for them a signal that they had lost their prominent position among the Decepticons, so they started planning a way to regain Galvatron’s esteem and trust. When Shockwave came close to killing Rodimus Prime, they intervened to save the enemy leader, as they wanted to kill him themselves to impress Galvatron. Shockwave didn’t appreciate this, and almost destroyed the two traitors… but in their battle they ended up on Junk, where the disembodied head of Unicron, still alive, took control of Scourge and Cyclonus once again, prompted them to kill Shockwave and made them the new leaders of the Decepticons. Scourge had gotten what he wanted, but he had lost his freedom once again…

Scourge is a relentless hunter, completely dedicated to the Decepticon cause and loyal to its leaders. As a Cybertronian, he possesses superhuman strength and durability, and being created by Unicron he is much more powerful than regular Cybertronians; he can transform into a Cybertronian hovercraft, and he commands a fleet of little replicas of himself; in battle he is formidable in hand-to-hand combat, but he usually prefers relying on his Laser Blaster and his Disintegrator Ray. Mighty and terrifying for his preys, Scourge is as arrogant as he is powerful, and will stop at nothing to catch or destroy his target.