UPDATE: The embargo has lifted. Read the full spoiler review for everything that happens in the short, and fan reactions calling it “a travesty” and “an insult to the character.”
I’ve seen Optimus Prime: Awakening.
Hasbro provided Cosmic Book News with an advance screener of the 12-minute animated short, which plays after select screenings of The Transformers: The Movie 4K re-release in theaters September 17-22.
The embargo on spoiler coverage lifts Friday, September 18 at 9 a.m. ET, and a full spoiler review is coming then. Until that time, here is my non-spoiler reaction.
I hated it.
What Disney Did To Luke Skywalker
Hasbro bills Optimus Prime: Awakening as a “love letter” to the Transformers community and to the late Peter Cullen, who died August 26 at the age of 85.
It isn’t.
What this short does to Optimus Prime is exactly comparable to what Disney did to Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi. If you remember how that felt, you know where I stand.
I can’t get into the story, the scenes, or the ending until Friday. What I can tell you is that when it ended, I was mad.
This is Peter Cullen’s final performance as Optimus Prime. Cullen deserved a better send-off than this. So did the fans.
The short arrives in the middle of Hasbro’s year-long “1986 Apology Tour” for killing Optimus Prime in the original movie. After Awakening, they’re going to need another one.
I’m Not Going To The Re-Release
The Transformers: The Movie returns to theaters in 4K from September 17-22 through Fathom Entertainment, with Awakening attached to select screenings.
I was planning on going. I’m not going now.
The 1986 movie means a lot to me. Hasbro killing off Optimus Prime forty years ago is part of why this site exists.
Frank Welker returns as Megatron and Soundwave alongside Cullen’s Optimus in the short, which was announced as part of the 40th anniversary celebration.
Hasbro also released a first clip this week showing Soundwave attacking Optimus — and Bumblebee revealed as a Decepticon.
The full spoiler review is now online. Fans deserve to know exactly what happens in this thing before buying a ticket.
