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I've only even stumbled onto "retire Optimus Prime out of respect" (that last phrase being the significant cringe element) as something that popped up on my feed unbidden from groups I am not in and accounts I don't follow because the algorithm works for someone else, not me. I don't know how old or how mature or how bereft of social formation the person that posted that is, although I have a guess.

I'm sure there were similar silly takes at all points of fandom history, but they weren't (as) platformed and amplified by a stupid social media landscape.

It's absolutely not required here. The brand moved on when the character was retired, and the more diverse portrayals we have for the character, the better. I merely brought that up because with talk of "the next movie", I was just hit with the realization of something that I'd intellectually known, but was emotionally re-experiencing as if for the first time. I'm with CoffeeHorse on the reality of having to be the one making the call for who it is, being a not-insignificant labor. Whether it's reasonable or not, the stakes for the next project (whatever it is) just went up a little bit, because this is also another area where it has to be good. It won't make a terrible movie good (although getting Peter Cullen did bring a lot of goodwill to the early Bay period nevertheless), but it's another criterion that fans and casuals alike will have in mind. Here's hoping for the best.

Retiring a character (for at least a few years) rather than recasting them seems like an idea based in how Japanese fans treat characters' voices.

And even there, it's mostly Japanese video games that really don't like recasting characters from anime. (Gundam and Suoer Robot Wars games are known for sometimes having characters voiced entirely by reused lines from previous games. Bright Noa was like this for a while, until he was recast for the Gundam Unicorn anime and now the new actor also voices game appearances including ones based on older anime).

Many major anime characters have been recast eventually, especially in reboots.

Whoever lands the role has an unenviable task, but also an opportunity. The first trailer to contain his voice is going to get a lot of views.

At this point I wouldn't mind Prime AND Megatron getting retired for a while, just so some other leaders can have the spotlight for a while.

Badgertron said:

At this point I wouldn't mind Prime AND Megatron getting retired for a while, just so some other leaders can have the spotlight for a while.

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That I think should be the case, instead of killing them off, just maybe have them be the characters who show up once in a while as a event, say we have a small team of rookies fighting a piece of a war and then suddenly arrives some serious Decepticons who completely out class the rookies in terms of strength and power, at first it seems like their request for back up is denied and just as all hope seems lost, Optimus appears with a couple of his best officers, like Jazz & Ironhide, their excuse for the timely arrival was intercepting a Decepticon transmission about a strange form of energon and that Megatron with a couple of his officers have come to investigate and rid the place of the Autobot "bugs" and claim the energon for their cause, the rookie Autobot leader could be Hot Rod while the Decepticons have someone else, so the arrival of Optimus & Megatron can be an event, like tease them at the start by having them send troops to said world for different reasons, then after a while they show up on the planet in their Cybertron forms and clash, just build up their arrival and battle!

I think this is the time to once and for all do a goddamn reboot. Cullen's OP is gone anyway, start a new era and start sober and small (with BIG EXPLOSIONS). Nothing more is owned to the past continuity-and-a-half worth of mess, or to the other o/One.

Delay this until after Secret Wars, probably, so there's some breathing room and some time to let people miss the brand in cinemas maybe. Idk.

Give me Bumblebee again without giving me Bumblebee again. Something not overstuffed that has great chemistry and a complete effing script. Maybe a buddy cop (I know, I know) movie with robots. Maybe a road trip movie with robots. Maybe someone investigating mysterious aliens throughout history only to find out it's THESE aliens. Maybe another go at a single parent struggling to raise kids make ends meet, but without anyone dating anyone underage. And if someone suggests to follow that up with another overstuffed mess, chuck them out a window.

Or, part of me is thinking what's the point, we've foreverost our chance to have Peter Cullen get to Robot Dad properly on the big screen ANYWAY, do with the brand what you will. Transformers Buckets Of Blood.

But make it a reboot.

It'll be interesting to see what happens. On one hand, the popularity of Transformers is definitely on the wane (at least in theaters) and I don't know if bringing Michael Bay back will even do anything (it certainly did the original series no favors to keep him around for the duration). Then again, all the 8-14 year olds from when the '07 movie came out are now going to be right in the sweet spot demographic, so it might be the perfect time to grab that nostalgia wave.

I'm not even sure what you reboot Transformers to now? It's kind of make or break for superhero movies with Doomsday/Secret Wars (Disney is certainly pulling out all the stops to try and get people interested) and theaters are STILL recovering from the COVID era in general.

Sabrblade said:

I'm not as big a Superman fan as I am a Transformers fan, so I don't follow the trends and happenings in the DC fandom, but when Christopher Reeve passed away, were there any people saying that Superman should be retired in his honor? Because that's what the suggestion of doing so with Optimus feels like, which would be even more of a tall order considering just how much bigger and way more famous Superman is compared to Optimus Prime.

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There may have been. Social media wasn't what it is now back when Superman Returns was happening, which was the first Superman movie post-Reeve. It was even a bit tricky because Returns was set up as a sequel to the first two Reeve movies, so Brandon Routh wasn't just playing Superman he was specifically playing Christopher Reeve's Superman.

Again though, social media was very much in its infancy so any "how could they do this? the role should have been retired" takes likely didn't have enough space to breath and spread around the internet.
Most of the "they should retire Optimus because Peter Cullen died" takes I've seen have been on Twitter and Reddit. Reddit was only a year old when Superman Returns was released and Twitter was founded the same year as that release.

Undead Scottsman said:

I'm not even sure what you reboot Transformers to now?

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Honestly, the obsession with continuity may be doing these franchises more harm than good. A big reason cited for MCU fatigue is that audiences may stay away if they feel they need to be up to date on like eight different previous movies and two tv shows. If they aren't...they'll just sit it out.
And the BBM/RotB duology was never sure if it wanted to commit to being a reboot or tied to the Bay movies somehow.

The Bayverse ended with the whole "Earth is Unicron and an evil space witch just showed up to do something with that" plot point and while that would be interesting to explore.... eh... TLK will be over a decade old by the time the next Bay movie releases, if it is happening.

It may be best to just tell a stand alone story with the Autobots already on Earth. And if someone asks if it's connected to the previous five movies, or even just some of them, go "it is if you want it to be."

I know that's not very Wiki friendly, but I think obsessing over continuity may lead to a "miss the forest for the trees" situation.

One thing you can say about Bay's TF films is they didn't really worry themselves about continuity. Whatever he felt like doing, he just did it, regardless of what happens in the previous films and really, in complete absence of any planning for future films.

My question about what you reboot it to is less directly about story continuity and more about just what they put up on the screen in general. Will they continue with the bay aesthetic? Will they continue to have 90% of the characters essentially be window dressing with no characterization? Will it follow the formula of "Previously unknown contact between earth and cybertron revealed, random cybertron mcguffin is central to the plot, asshole government person gets in the way, Optimus gives a speech at the end."

Like, really, what do you even do with this franchise on the big screen these days?

I know what I'd do. Have all the robots be the main characters, have personalities and character arcs and tell a story about them like a regular adventure movie, just all the characters are fun transforming robots.

I'm not saying it would succeed, just what I'd do.


-ZacWilliam, I like when films own what they are. Give me a G1 Cartoon episode.

Just give us our "King Arthur and the Guardian Knights" movie as an apology for The Last Knight.

ZacWilliam1 said:

I know what I'd do. Have all the robots be the main characters, have personalities and character arcs and tell a story about them like a regular adventure movie, just all the characters are fun transforming robots.

I'm not saying it would succeed, just what I'd do.

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We got that. It was Transformers One. And it was enjoyable.

And it did not succeed. Not even a little.

The only version of Optimus Prime I would think should maybe be retired for Cullen is G1 cartoon Optimus Prime.

Like, that specific version. The same one it took them ~40 years to even do anything with again.

I don't mean Devastation. I don't mean Prime Wars. I don't mean whatever else takes some cues from the G1 cartoon, but is clearly its own thing.

Just the G1 cartoon.

Really, Hasbro can just say they're doing that and take the win without actually doing anything.

Unless this whole Awakening thing continues on, I guess. But hey, they already replaced Bumblebee, so...

While I get that and agree in principle, the optics of it are just so disingenuous it'd be better for Hasbro to just not say anything at all on the matter and move forward on the voice actor front. It comes across as making an empty statement, which is basically equivocation for everyone but continuity wonks ("we're retiring G1 Op, but not that G1 Op, or that G1 Op") -- which due to its not really saying anything comes across as performative sympathy wringing.

Should really just not dignify any talk of "retiring" in any way to begin with.

I'm fine if they can the whole Awakening continuation.

lastmaximal said:

Should really just not dignify any talk of "retiring" in any way to begin with.

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And, what would doing so mean for any comic writers who want to write expanded-universe tie-in comics set in the world of the G1 cartoon outside of the episodes' onscreen events? Would that mean that these writers wouldn't be allowed to use Optimus Prime just because the comics would be set in the world of the cartoon?

Over in Japan, Hayato Sakamoto has written many sprawling additions to the world of the G1 cartoon in manga form, and Optimus (under the name of "Convoy") has appeared in several of them with varying degrees of prominence in the roles he plays in them. Would Sakamoto suddenly no longer be allowed to use Convoy in those manga series and tell any new stories about him just because his voice actor from a different language version of the cartoon on the other side of the planet passed away?

I mean, when Seizo Kato passed away, Takara didn't retire G1 cartoon Megatron in Japan, and Kato was a pretty legendary voice actor in his own right. His career stretched as far back as 1958, many of his fellow actors spoke very fondly of him (including Tessho Genda, the Japanese voice of G1 Optimus/Convoy). He was reportedly very attached to the role of Megatron and Galvatron, to the point of having amassed his own collection of Megatron toys (even ones of Megatrons he did not voice).

I wouldn't know, I'm not very familiar with the voice acting dynamics in comics.

In any case, such a retirement statement would be more for the general audience than people who would even be familiar with these more niche production corners, hence my point about it being a more or less empty sentiment. It's like saying you'll stop charging for a product because you recognize the value it has for people, but the ultra fine print clarifies it's only units from this production run made before 2 PM each day and inspected by this one specific quality control assurance agent from this one factory located in this specific city in Botswana.

CoffeeHorse said:

I'm fine if they can the whole Awakening continuation.

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Absolutely. Nothing of value will have been lost. Just repurpose the material already produced to be its own thing, if they must. Idk how much more tie-in stuff they had on hand (wouldn't be surprised to see an Optimus with that cel shading and/or battle damage and maybe a swappable blue human hand, at least), but I wouldn't really miss it.

My 2 cents is, Optimus the character should NOT be retired, but the next voice actor needs to do a voice that is not just their rendition of Cullen's Optimus. I wouldn't mind Tessho Genda doing Optimus, if that were possible (don't really know if he's interested in English voice acting, plus he's only slightly younger than Peter Cullen), or really anyone doing a suitably heroic new voice. Just make it a fresh take. Comparisons to Cullen's Optimus will be inevitable, but I think the best way to honor Cullen's memory is to celebrate what came before while still trying to forge new stories.