Transformers: Prime (franchise)
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Transformers: Prime is a Transformers franchise that launched in the year 2010. It began with the simultaneous launch of the novel Exodus: The Official History of the War for Cybertron and the video game Transformers: War for Cybertron. Prime's main manifestation will be the upcoming Transformers: Prime cartoon on the new Hub network.
The Prime franchise featured the following primary components:
- A series of novels
- Video games
- Comic books
- A cartoon series
- Some figures within the overarching Generations Toyline
Transformers: Prime represents a concerted effort on Hasbro's part to imagine a new "aligned continuity" from the ground up that includes all the facets they feel worked best from past universes.[1] Given this, it is not surprising to find that it borrows heavily from G1, the live-action movies and Animated, among others. Their plans are for the Prime universe to last several years, unlike the constant reboots of the 2000s.[2] To this end, they have created an extensive, 350-page continuity bible for writers in the new continuity to follow.[3]
Most excitingly, this continuity family began unraveling the mystery of the thirteen original Transformers in Exodus, as stated in Hasbro's May 2010 Q&A. At BotCon 2010, redesigns of five of the 13 were shown.
Continuity
- Despite the concerted effort to organize the new continuity, Exodus and War for Cybertron are very incompatible versions of a similar story, creating two separate universes for the continuity right from the start. Regardless, in a preview of the game it was mentioned the game was to serve as a basis for the new continuity,[2] and Exodus can be considered an adaptation expansion.
- It probably doesn't help that poor editing left Exodus self-contradictory on a good number of backstory points.
Notes
- Aaron Archer stated at BotCon 2010 that he wasn't particularly happy with "Prime" as the name of the new continuity family, but did not yet have a better option to offer. He had considered recommending "Epochs," only to conclude it wasn't really better after all. In the October 2009 Hasbro Q&A with The Allspark forum, they referred to the 13's story as an "epoch".
