Power of the Primes is the third and final installment of the '' Transformers: Prime Wars Trilogy'', a

toy A toy or plaything is an object that is used primarily to provide entertainment. Simple examples include toy blocks, board games, and dolls. Toys are often designed for use by children, although many are designed specifically for adults and pet ...

line and

transmedia Transmedia storytelling (also known as transmedia narrative or multiplatform storytelling) is the technique of telling a single story or story experience across multiple platforms and formats using current digital technologies. From a producti ...

series created by

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of K ...

as part of the ''

Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Tomy, Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the Autobots and the Decepticons, two alien robot factions at war that can transform into other forms ...

'' franchise. It consists of the toy line, as well as the animated web series of the same name. Development of the franchise began in November 2016 with the announcement of an animated web series by Machinima, based on the upcoming toyline. In January 2017, Hasbro held a fan-vote to decide which character would become the next Prime in the franchise. In February, it was decided that

Optimus Primal Optimus Prime, , is a fictional character in the ''Transformers'' franchise. The Transformers characters were developed for an American market after Hasbro representatives visited the 1983 Tokyo Toy Show. The characters were modified and the ...

would become the next Prime.

Development

''Power of the Primes'' was first announced on November 29, 2016.

announced that it would once again partner with Machinima—after having previously worked with them on the animated

web series A web series (also known as a web show) is a series of scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet, which first emerged in the late 1990s and became more prominent in the early 2000s. A single in ...

adaptation of '' Transformers: Combiner Wars''—to produce the adaptations for '' Transformers: Titans Return'' and '' Transformers: Power of the Primes''. Eric Calderon, showrunner of ''Combiner Wars'', was confirmed to have returned for both ''Titans Return'' and ''Power of the Primes''. In January 2017, Hasbro created a poll allowing fans to vote which Transformer will become the next Prime. The vote occurred in two stages. During the first, fans voted for the leaders of three different personality factions; honor, order and chaos. Honor was represented by Arcee,

Ultra Magnus Ultra Magnus is a fictional character from the various ''Transformers'' storylines in the Transformers franchise, generally appearing as a chief lieutenant of Optimus Prime. Transformers: Generation 1 Despite his incredible fighting skills, ...

and Hound; Order by

Megatron Megatron is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the ''Transformers'' media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. Megatron is the cruel and tyrannical leader of the Decepticons, ...

, Star Saber and Shockwave and Chaos by Thunderwing,

and an Unknown Evil ( Deathsaurus). The winners of the first round were Ultra Magnus, Star Saber and Optimus Primal, advancing into the second round alongside the Unknown Evil as a

wildcard Wild card most commonly refers to: * Wild card (cards), a playing card that substitutes for any other card in card games * Wild card (sports), a tournament or playoff place awarded to an individual or team that has not qualified through normal pla ...

. The poll ended a month later on February 18, and Optimus Primal was chosen as the next Prime. At the 2017

San Diego Comic-Con San Diego Comic-Con International is a comic book convention and nonprofit multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California since 1970. The name, as given on its website, is Comic-Con International: San Diego; but it is ...

on July 20, Hasbro revealed during their panel some of the figures of the toyline. The figures shown were those of Liege Maximo, Dreadwind, Blackwing, Starscream,

Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

and

Rodimus Prime ''The Transformers'' is an American animated television series that originally aired from September 17, 1984, to November 11, 1987, in syndication based upon Hasbro's ''Transformers'' toy line. The first television series in the ''Transformer ...

. During Hasbro's first

HasCon Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of ...

fan convention in September, the new Combiner Volcanicus was revealed. The combiner is composed of the five Dinobots:

Grimlock Grimlock is the name of several fictional robot characters in the Transformers robot franchise. He is usually portrayed as the leader of the Dinobots, a subfaction of Autobots who can transform into metal dinosaurs. Grimlock was known for his ...

, Slug, Sludge,

Snarl A snarl is a sound, often a growl or vicious utterance, often accompanied by a facial expression, where the upper lip is raised, and the nostrils widen, generally indicating hate, anger or pain. In addition to humans, other mammals including m ...

and Swoop.

Controversy

In November 2017, a fan noticed that a tiny print found on the vehicle mode of Jazz featured scribbles that, when translated from the Cybertronian alphabet, read out "MAGA", which is an abbreviation for "

Make America Great Again "Make America Great Again" or MAGA is an American political slogan popularized by Donald Trump in his successful 2016 presidential campaign. The slogan became a pop culture phenomenon, seeing widespread use and spawning numerous variants i ...

", the slogan of President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

. Hasbro soon released a statement that the issue had been investigated and that a vendor had placed the acronym without authorization. The company also clarified that they are addressing the issue with the vendor and that they "do not intend for heirproducts to carry political messages, apologiz ngto anyone who was offended by this message".

Animated web series

''Transformers: Power of the Primes'' is an animated web series developed by F.J. DeSanto, Adam Beechen and Jamie Iracleanos, and produced by Machinima, Inc. and

Hasbro Studios Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of K ...

, with the animation provided by

Tatsunoko Production and often shortened to , is a Japanese animation company. The studio's name has a double meaning in Japanese: "Tatsu's child" (Tatsu is a nickname for Tatsuo) and "sea dragon", the inspiration for its seahorse logo. Tatsunoko's headquarters are i ...

. It is the final installment of the '' Transformers: Prime Wars Trilogy'' series, being the direct sequel to '' Transformers: Titans Return''. The series premiered on May 1, 2018 in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

go90 go90 was an American Internet television service and mobile app owned and operated by Verizon Communications. The service was positioned as a mobile-oriented "social entertainment platform" targeted primarily towards millennials, featuring a m ...

, and on

Tumblr Tumblr (stylized as tumblr; pronounced "tumbler") is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a sho ...

internationally. In the aftermath of the Titans' conflict that concluded with Optimus Prime's death,

and the rest of the Transformers must stand together in order to stop Megatronus from wiping out their species forever. During their search for the Requiem Blaster, more mysteries about Cybertron's past will be uncovered, and a new Prime will be chosen.

Casting

On January 9, 2018, it was announced that Mark Hamill, who had previously voiced Megatronus in ''Transformers: Titans Return'', would resume his role for ''Transformers: Power of the Primes''. It was also confirmed that Ron Perlman would voice

, after the character was voted by fans to become the next Prime, while

Gregg Berger Gregory Alan Berger (born December 10, 1950) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Jecht from ''Final Fantasy X'' and the ''Dissidia Final Fantasy'' games, Grimlock from '' The Transformers'', Mysterio and Kraven the Hunter from '' ...

also reprised his role as

in addition to Volcanicus, the combined robot form of the five Dinobots. Other voice actors include

Jaime King Jaime King (born April 23, 1979) is an American actress and model. In her modeling career and early film roles, she used the names Jamie King and James King, which was a childhood nickname given to King by her parents, because her agency alread ...

Mikey Way Michael James Way (born September 10, 1980) is an American musician and actor. He is best known as the bassist of the rock band My Chemical Romance. He is also the multi-instrumentalist and backing vocalist of rock duo Electric Century. Mikey ...

Peter Cullen Peter Claver Cullen (born July 28, 1941) is a Canadian voice actor. He is best known as the voice of Optimus Prime in the original 1980s ''Transformers'' animated series, reprising the role many times since 2007. He has also voiced many other ...

, and

Samoa Joe Nuufolau Joel Seanoa (born March 17, 1979), is an American professional wrestler better known by the ring name Samoa Joe who is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Joe is currently a double champion - in his first reign both as AE ...

Judd Nelson Judd Asher Nelson (born November 28, 1959) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as John Bender in ''The Breakfast Club'', Alec Newbury in ''St. Elmo's Fire'', Joe Hunt in '' Billionaire Boys Club'', Nick Peretti in ''New Jack Cit ...

Kari Wahlgren Kari Wahlgren (born July 13, 1977) is an American actress who has provided English-language voices for animated movies, TV series, and video games. She got her start in anime voice-overs as Haruko Haruhara in '' FLCL'', and would later land ma ...

and

Wil Wheaton Richard William Wheaton III (born July 29, 1972) is an American actor. He portrayed Wesley Crusher on the television series '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'', Gordie Lachance in the film '' Stand by Me'', Joey Trotta in '' Toy Soldiers'', ...

also reprised their roles.

Voice cast

The series features returning actors and newcomers as part of the cast. *

and Volcanicus *

Optimus Prime Optimus Prime, , is a fictional character in the ''Transformers'' franchise. The Transformers characters were developed for an American market after Hasbro representatives visited the 1983 Tokyo Toy Show. The characters were modified and the ...

* Rob Dyke as Devastator * Charlie Guzman as

Menasor ''The Transformers'' is an American animated television series that originally aired from September 17, 1984, to November 11, 1987, in Broadcast syndication, syndication based upon Hasbro's Transformers (toy line), ''Transformers'' toy line. T ...

* Mark Hamill as Megatronus / The Fallen *

Predaking ''The Transformers'' is an American animated television series that originally aired from September 17, 1984, to November 11, 1987, in syndication based upon Hasbro's ''Transformers'' toy line. The first television series in the ''Transformer ...

as Solus Prime * Jason Marnocha as

as Hot Rod / Rodimus Cron / Rodimus Unicronus and

Unicron Unicron is a fictional villain from the ''Transformers'' media franchise. Designed by Floro Dery, he was introduced in the 1986 animated film '' The Transformers: The Movie'' and has since reappeared in '' Transformers: Armada'', '' Transformer ...

* Matthew Patrick as Computron and Swoop * Ron Perlman as Optimus Primal / Optimal Optimus *

Patrick Seitz David Patrick Seitz (born March 17, 1978) is an American voice actor, ADR director and script writer known for his work for Funimation, Bang Zoom! Entertainment, NYAV Post, Studiopolis, Viz Media, Disney/Pixar, New Generation Pictures and Rio ...

as Overlord * Frank Todaro as Sludge and Starscream * Abby Trott as

Windblade Windblade is the name of several fictional characters in the various Transformers continuities in the ''Transformers'' robot superhero franchise. She is always depicted as a female Autobot that can turn into a VTOL jet. Transformers: Generations ...

as Victorion *

Perceptor ''The Transformers'' is an American animated television series that originally aired from September 17, 1984, to November 11, 1987, in syndication based upon Hasbro's ''Transformers'' toy line. The first television series in the ''Transforme ...

Episodes

Comic book

According to John Barber, editor of IDW Publishing, the ongoing ''

'' comics published by the company will not feature a

crossover event A crossover is the placement of two or more otherwise discrete fictional characters, settings, or universes into the context of a single story. They can arise from legal agreements between the relevant copyright holders, unofficial efforts by ...

based on Power of the Primes. IDW had previously published crossover events based on Combiner Wars and Titans Return.

References

External links

* {{Portal bar, United States, Japan, Toys, Television, Cartoon, Science Fiction Transformers: Prime Wars Trilogy 2010s American adult animated television series 2018 web series debuts 2018 web series endings American adult animated action television series American adult animated web series Anime-influenced Western animated television series Transmedia storytelling