Overview
- Hasbro and Fathom Entertainment announced on Tuesday that Optimus Prime: Awakening is a new 12-minute animated short that will play after select 4K 40th‑anniversary screenings of The Transformers: The Movie.
- The studios confirmed the short contains Peter Cullen’s final original performance as Optimus Prime and described the project as a tribute to Cullen and longtime franchise fans.
- Frank Welker returns as Megatron and Soundwave, animation studio The Third Floor handled visuals, and Josh Wassung is credited as the short’s director with an advance Los Angeles premiere and Q&A set for Sept. 8.
- Tickets for the 40th‑anniversary theatrical run, scheduled from Sept. 17–22, are on sale through Fathom, but which international showings will include the short and any wider release plans have not been detailed.
- The short frames the anniversary screenings as a fan event that leans on nostalgia for the 1986 landmark film and gives Cullen a formal on‑screen sendoff after his death in late August, turning the reissue into a limited communal tribute.