New Animated Transformers Movie In Development

How many of you remember 1986?  It was a time of campy 80's cartoons like He-Man, Thundercats, G.I. Joe, and yes...Transformers.  In fact, Transformers made the jump from small screen to silver screen that year, and it was a movie that really shook things up for the cartoon, changes that even made their way over to the television show.  A lot of the original Autobots were killed off, including Optimus Prime.  While it was a shock that Hasbro would do such a thing, it turns out that the reason that they wanted to kill off a lot of the original  characters was to make way for a new line of Transformers toys.  It had to do with marketing.  What Hasbro hadn't expected was the blow back that it received after the movie came out.  Fans were furious.  How could they kill off Optimus Prime?  Well, Hasbro got the hint, and Optimus eventually made his way back from the dead.  By the way, this movie had a killer 80's soundtrack for it, too!


With Michael Bay's Transformers movies still popular at the theaters (even though The Last Knight didn't do nearly as well as his other films) Hasbro is splintering off into other projects that take place in the Transformers universe.  There's a Bumblebee movie being made, which will star John Cena and Hailee Steinfeld, and will be a type of prequel that's set in the 1980's.  I've got to say, it's funny how different movies love going back to that decade!  X-Men did it, the upcoming Captain Marvel movie will take place then, too, the Wonder Woman sequel, and now the Bumblebee movie...but I digress...


Now it's been announced that Hasbro is indeed working on a new full-length animated feature of the Transformers.  It's reportedly going to be made as a kind of origins story for the Autobots and Decepticons.  Even though it's going to be an animated feature, it will take place in the same universe as the Michael Bay films.  It's also not going to be a "one and done" type of thing, either.  Hasbro and Paramount (which will be releasing the films through Allspark Pictures) want to release a Transformers animated film every year, although there hasn't been any word on when this first movie will arrive.


Just as an FYI, Hasbro is also planning on releasing a Stretch Armstrong animated movie, and a My Little Pony animated movie, too.  Not interested in either of those, but I'll keep you up to date on the Transformers cartoon as details begin to emerge.