With the recent news of Cyberverse ending at 3 seasons I just wanted to make a thread to discuss what and why transformers shows only end at 3 seasons (except rescue bots, G1, and Rid 15 depending on your preference.)
Hello, I was the one who originally took the screenshot of that LinkedIn post stating that Season 3 was the final one, on the basis that a user in these forums said a Facebook account stated it. (Dunno why I thought LinkedIn was the logical choice to look, but it worked). I kind of regret this, as someone else yoinked it and articles were made, spoiling an event for many fans. So apologies for causing some trouble. That being said, There's a simple reason to why Transformers often ends at the 3rd season mark. as SPLIT LIP says, it's toy related. Toylines don't have a long shelf life, and probably never will. i would argue it's a miracle some Transformers shows even make it past 2 seasons. I'm just like any regular fan (except with extremely low knowledge on the toys), so this is just guess work, but I've seen some misconceptions regarding the cancelling of Transformers shows and hope to correct some: "Cyberverse was cancelled for WFC Siege" While my confidence in the Siege Netflix show is about as high as Dead End's optimism, this is simply not the reason why Cyberverse is ending. Hasbro has shown that they cater to different age groups. Rescue Bots Academy is meant for pre-school audience, Cyberverse for 6-10, and Siege for 10+. Considering how there's not even a USA airdate for Cyberverse season 3 yet, it's entirely possible it'll air as Siege is airing on Netflix. Hasbro can multi-task (sometimes). "Animated was cancelled for Prime" Animated did end at a season 3, but it's cancellation was not to make way for Prime on the Hub. While Hasbro was probably inclined to make a new show on their new network, ultimately Animated did not meet the sales numbers to justify its continuation. The show is dependent on money made from toy sales, otherwise the owners (Hasbro) would have to shell out their money that they'll never see again. (ironically this is what happened in Prime, but Hasbro was more willing to throw money due to taking a gamble on The Hub network). Robots in Disguise (2015) was 3 seasons. Those 8 episodes about Starscream were separate due to weird requests but they fit under Season 2. Anyway, Transformers shows end at a 3rd season because the toyline ran its course, Hasbro over the years probably realized this (Prime Wars trilogy, and now the War for Cybertron trilogy). It's unfortunate because Cyberverse was such a fun show, but that's just how business works.
Hasbro has an allergy to 4th Seasons. Its a shame as i really liked cyberverse and was hoping to see Hotrod gradually becoming autobot leader and taking over from Optimus.
I'm kind of surprised given how cheap everything going into Cyberverse is, it looks designed to be able to survive for at least a few years given how little effort and funds are required to make episodes. It's kind of... even more laughable how they can't get go past a 3rd season when they have so much slack given to them. It looks like Rescue Bots Academy is going to end with more episodes than this thing. 11 minute episodes where they constantly re-use assets, hire randos to do the voices, and yet ...
Yeah, Sadly this sorta happens. But who knows, maybe they might consider doing a direct sequel to Cyberverse? Like, they could find ways to reuse assets in some way.
In general Hasbro shows rarely go beyond 3 seasons. In the case for something like Transformers, where they typically have an end goal(end the War between Autobots and Decepticons), very rarely do they even need to last beyond that end goal. Though I still think some are justified in lasting a bit longer, like Animated, RiD2015, and Cyberverse, which is why I feel people are justified. That said, if they end, they end. And if they told the story they wanted to tell that’s for the best. I’d rather shows end on a high note than end up like MLP:FIM where I still wish it ended at S3, or at least S4 or S5 instead of lasting for 9 seasons, completely shitting itself within the second half of the show’s run with drek like S6 or S9
Perhaps they're taking a closer look at what needs to be done with an animated cartoon and are going to come out with something a little more cohesive and better quality with the next series. Maybe it's just wishful thinking, but every so often Transformers comes up with a decent show and this might be one of those intervals given that we're a little overdue.
It's less a curse and more of a Hasbro marketing strategy. I forget where the image is but the strategy was in cycles like this: Age 2-5: Rescue bots Age 5-10: (Current main show) Age 10-14: Generations Age 15+: Masterpiece
Random note: That linkedin post has recently been deleted, probably because one can't always publicly say a show has been cancelled before it starts airing. Hope the guy didn't get in trouble.
I'm not sure that it's a curse at all - every story needs to end at some point before it gets stale or builds up so much continuity that it does soft reboots because people want to go in a new direction. Three seasons is a solid number, so long as the writers actually plan their work.
It's not a curse, it's a pattern. 3 years is probably about the most you can expect a young audience to stick with a show before it becomes sensible to start a fresh cycle. When your target audience groups are like 5-7, 7-10, 10-13 or whatever 3 years is about the time it takes for the majority of your audience to age through the range and out. Or even just to find something different that interests them (because 3 years is an eternity when you're a kid and tastes change all the time)
It has nothing to do with the audience being young. If that were the case Rescue Bots shouldn't still be going. That's made for kids 4 and under. Kids who were in that target age range when the show started would be 9 to 13 years old now... That makes me feel old... I'm literally just realizing as I'm writing this that a 4 year old then is a 13 year old now... Anyway... All shows typically only last three seasons. That seems to be the average regardless of the age of the target audience. If a network really likes a series they might order more seasons to be made beyond that or it could move to a different network that orders another season. If the network doesn't like the show it could end up being cancelled before they even finish the standard 3 season run. But in general bar any unforeseen circumstances that could either shorten or extend a show's run time, every series is three seasons. Now if every Transformers cartoon ended after 1 or 2 seasons that would be a curse. 3 is just the general rule. Everything comes in threes. This same rule is also why Star Wars and many other movies are trilogies. It even dates back to live theater. Most plays are written in three acts. The whole three seasons of a TV show thing is just a modern version of that. Every great story has a beginning, a middle, and an end... This is where the rule of three comes from... it's a representation of those three things.
