As it turns out, Peter Cullen has some of the best job security in Hollywood. The long-time voice actor will soon return to the Transformers franchise to voice Optimus Prime. As Transformers producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura says, the Optimus role belongs to Cullen until he no longer wants it. That means when the Paramount franchise continues with Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, Cullen will be back in the saddle as the beloved Autobot.

"Peter Cullen brought this character to life with his amazing voice back in 1984. Is he returning? Absolutely. There's, there's no discussion without him really, you know, unless he didn't want it. That would be the only way he would not be in here," the producer said Tuesday in a press event for the Hasbro toy franchise.
It doesn't stop there, either. di Bonaventura added then he's going to be meeting with Cullen soon to pitch even more Optimus-centric projects in the near future in an attempt to grow the Transformers franchise even further.


"I know Optimus is near and dear to him. Steven and I are going to be talking soon about some of the stuff that he's interested in bringing to the table and, and vice versa," he added. "And so, yeah, he's on board."


Though Rise of the Beast will feature Optimus Prime and his Autobots and their nemeses in the Decepticons, the primary antagonists of the feature will be the Terrorcons and Predacons, two factions from the beloved Beast Wars spin-off.

"We wanted to expand the universe, you have the Autobots and the Decepticons, and I would say my new flair to this is the Terracons," Steven Caple Jr. added. "The Terracons are a new threat to Optimus Prime, and it's something I pride myself on when entering the franchise. I've done Rocky with Creed, and you bring the nostalgia that fans want, but also bring something they aren't expecting, and the Terracons are that."

"The Predacons in our film are more reptilian in nature. We've seen a few in the other Transformers films, but we've never had the chance to focus in on their logo, their tribe if you will, and we get to see another side to them," Caple Jr. concluded. "It's all about building a backstory to these characters that are more than just 'let's take over the world.'"



Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is set in 1994 and will serve as a spiritual successor to 2018's Bumblebee. It's currently scheduled to hit theaters on June 24, 2022.




source:
Transformers: Peter Cullen Will Play Optimus Prime Until He Says Otherwise

 

Awesome! No such thing as too much Peter Cullen. Bring it on!

 

LONG LIVE CULLEN CHADS

 

Now, let's extend this courtesy to the Beast Wars voice actors.

 

This. And Frank Welker!

 

Glad to know Cullen is going to remain the definitive voice for Optimus. I'm still a little salty that Netflix shafted him and Welker in the WFC show...

 

Oh, this also gives us confirmation Paramount has no actual plan or story idea and they are going to make whatever they want.

 

First good thing that hack has said - ever. And yeah duh Peter Cullen is the man - he deserves this, no question. Guys, we need to hold these Hollywood slimes to their word or else we riot - got it everyone?

However, this does raise some implications. Does this extend to Orion Pax? I know we're getting an animated Cybertron prequel, so it'll be interesting to see how Cullen handles a younger Optimus - no doubt he'll kill it though.

Also, this is sort of confirmation of what some insiders on tfw2005 have said about Optimus being the heart of the franchise moving forward - this is so freaking exciting! Also sad it took them this long to figure it out....

Does this also mean we're stuck with Caple for the long run? "Steven and I are going to be talking soon about some of the stuff that he's interested in bringing to the table" - notice he says both of them, not just him. Is he going to be the new Michael Bay? Either they're very happy and confident with the next movie or they didn't learn from past mistakes...

Am I the only one who finds this more exciting than the actual ROTB news? Like I'm excited yet reserved for that but I'm pumped for this. I might be biased cause Prime is my favorite character in pop culture, but I hope I'm not the only one.

 

Cullen won't do his voice work until after principal photography, so they probably haven't done much of any work on it.

 

I'm just referencing the fact that it sounds like Steven is sticking around after this next movie since he's going to be talking with Cullen and Bono about future projects.

 

This is really exciting news. I like the fact that Optimus Prime is going to be the core of this next set of movies, as there really hasn't been much done with his character in the movies so far (outside of AOE). The fact that they're dedicated to keeping Cullen around, while expected, is comforting as they view him as an essential part of the character and are asking him for potential ideas. Here's hoping for some solid development over the course of these films.

 

That didn't sound like "more Optimus movies coming to me", it sounded more like they're saying Peter is having input on what the character says and does in the new film and the article person twisted the words to mean "More Optimus Movies Planned"

 

Exactly. They're speaking in future tense, because none of the voice work has even been started.

 

I’m not familiar with Steven’s work but having new blood along will mean a change in how these movies will work unless they prefer to the Michael bay way of doing things. My point is we’ll see what happens!

 

…it sounds like multiple future projects to me

 

Man, I have missed Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime.

 

If they bring in Hot Rod they can build up to Prime passing the torch.

 

Awesome! Glad to hear they are talking in terms like "Optimus Prime centric" , shows a focus on the characters.

 

Sounds good. Peter Cullen is great in this role and the TF movies (at least 3 and 4) were some of his best performances, with him actually getting material that let him flex his acting. Let's hope they actually follow through with this, assuming Paramount even manages to keep the Transformers license.

 

Good for Peter Cullen.