Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy (cartoon)
| The name or term "War for Cybertron" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see War for Cybertron (disambiguation). |
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Transformers: War For Cybertron is an animated series produced by Hasbro and Rooster Teeth, with animation by Polygon Pictures, based on the War for Cybertron Trilogy franchise. F.J. DeSanto acts as the series showrunner, a role he previously held for the Prime Wars Trilogy web series, with George Krstic, Gavin Hignight, Brandon M. Easton, Tim Sheridan, and Mae Catt as writers. The show also sees Jake Foushee, Jason Marnocha, and Frank Todaro reprising their respective roles as Optimus Prime, Megatron, and Starscream, as well as previous Transformers alumni Keith Silverstein and Sophia Isabella returning for voicework as new characters. Three seasons of the show are planned for release via Netflix, one for each of the franchise's three toylines; the first season was released on July 30, 2020, the second season on December 30, 2020, and the third is planned for July 29, 2021.
In conjunction with the series, Hasbro released a Netflix-branded small toyline featuring more animation accurate paint jobs.
Overview
In the final hours of the civil war between the Autobots and Decepticons, the planet Cybertron has been ravaged by endless battle. Dissent forms amongst both factions and forces grow weaker, leaving Optimus Prime and his Autobots on their last leg. Frustrated, Ultra Magnus surrenders to the Decepticons shortly before Megatron learns of the mystical Allspark. He eventually eases himself into Shockwave's plan to use the vessel of life to reformat all Autobots on the planet into Decepticons, unifying them as one faction under his rule. Meanwhile, neutral scavenger Bumblebee wants no part in the war but is forced to join the conflict when he obtains the Alpha Trion Protocols and the location of the Allspark after the imprisoned Ultra Magnus is murdered. Despite Elita-1's warnings, Optimus Prime forms a plan to flee the planet aboard the Ark and eject the Allspark, at the cost of the planet itself. The Autobots cautiously trust ex-Decepticon Jetfire to lead them into the dangerous Sea of Rust to obtain the Allspark, while a reluctant Ratchet and Decepticon Impactor repair a derelict space bridge, and Wheeljack repairs the Ark, assisted by Bumblebee's energon theft from the Mercenaries. The synchronous plan succeeds, and the Ark and Allspark each travel to an unknown location, leaving Elita-1 and her team to continue the war effort on Cybertron.
With Cybertron unable to sustain life, Megatron and the Decepticons plan to flee the dead planet aboard the newly-constructed Nemesis, powered by the sparks of weak and imprisoned Decepticons, though Elita-1 and her team set on freeing them. The Ark Autobots are taken by Mercenary Doubledealer and the Fool's Fortune crew to Quintesson Judge Deseeus on Chaar, though a double-cross allows the Autobots to flee, at the cost of Megatron knowing their location. After the Nemesis departures to follow the Ark, Shockwave lures in more weak for spark harvesting, prompting the now-free Scrapface and Elita-1's forces to explode Kaon Arena. Unfortunately, their capture leads to no-escape, as the explosion engulfs both Elita-1 and Shockwave's teams. Elsewhere, the Ark locates the Allspark and travels to the Nebulon Station, but their attempts to detonate it to pass through the space-bridge come to a stop by Scorponok and Megatron. Eventually, Starscream aboard the Nemesis fires to kill Megatron as a gambit for power, but the resulting explosion opens a rift to the Dead Universe. Inside, the Ark crew find the jaded Sky Lynx, who takes Optimus Prime on a spiritual journey and helps him open an exit rift to the location of the Allspark: Earth. Meanwhile, Megatron meets his future-self Galvatron, who urges him to use his hatred to kill Optimus Prime, leading to Sky Lynx's sacrifice to save the Autobots. After Unicron pulls Galvatron away, the Ark, Nemesis, and the in-pursuit Fool's Fortune escape the Dead Universe and lock into a dogfight, which ends with Megatron taking the Matrix of Leadership. The Deseeus-controlled Doubledealer, craving for revenge, attacks the other ships, though retaliation results in the Fool's Fortune warp-drive exploding, causing the Ark to crash on pre-historic Earth—but neither the Autobots and Decepticons are aware that they are not the only Cybertronians on the planet...
Cast
Episodes
Chapter 1: Siege
Chapter 2: Earthrise
Chapter 3: Kingdom
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Notes
- Originally planned for a June 2020 release, the series premiere was delayed one month, reportedly due to production delays with its foreign-language dubs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
- During production, the animation team utilized Hasbro's original CAD files for the War for Cybertron Trilogy toyline. As a result, the character models are absurdly toy-accurate, down to several even retaining their 5 mm post holes and 3 mm pegs. For the first chapter, characters who did not have toys in the Siege toy-lineup used original character models or modified pre-existing ones created specifically for the show, with the sole exception being Wheeljack, who uses the model for the Earthrise toy.
- Earthrise original-models, on the other hand, do not utilize toy CAD files, with the exception of Scorponok and Sky Lynx, the former of which has a much modified beast mode. Nemesis Prime as well is toy accurate, though that is likely due to the toy and the show model coincidentally using the Siege body for a black recolor.
- Siege was promoted with several motion posters highlighting members of the main cast. In each of these posters, a letter from the "Ancient Autobot" alphabet created by Jim Sorenson can be seen flashing in the background. When the letters are put in order, they spell out the word "KINGDOM", the name of the trilogy's third subline/season.[1]
- The series features extensive use of generics, though both sides use different character models as the base for their troops. The Autobots use Cog, Sideswipe, Mirage, Ironhide, and Hound to pad their forces while the Decepticons use Impactor, Refraktor, Barricade, and, as usual, the Seekers. All of these generics except for Cog and Impactor are used for the Sparkless, with Laserbeak used for the Sea of Rust birds, Impactor for the Dome Guards and a gladiator, and Ironhide for Deseeus's army.
- Upon its initial release in the United States, War for Cybertron Trilogy was given a TV-Y7 designation, despite the show's dark tone, violence, and brief use of coarse language in the first episode. Presumably due to these very criteria, the series was later re-rated to TV-14, making it the first Transformers television series to carry that designation. Due to the separation of seasons into separate listings (below), Earthrise keeps the TV-Y7 rating.
- Despite the three parts being advertised as three chapters of one series, when the second Earthrise trailer released, it also received a separate page on Netflix. The original War for Cybertron Trilogy page's title graphic was also changed to include Siege and the number 1 behind it. This also means that Netflix calls the Earthrise episodes "Chapter 1" as well.
Foreign names
- Chinese: Biànxíng Jīngāng: Sàibótǎn Dàzhàn Sānbùqǔ (Taiwan, 變形金剛：賽博坦大戰三部曲 "Transformers: Cybertron War Trilogy")
- Japanese: Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy (トランスフォーマー: ウォー・フォー・サイバトロン・トリロジー Toransufōmā: Wō fō Saibatoron Torirojī)
