Oh my god we’ve come full circle.

 

Put buttcheeks in theater.  

Haha! Very true.  

 

50/50 I think it depends on whether or not they need they need the work. The last time I saw Mcneil he was an extra with lines on Flash so I'm gonna guess that he could use the work and the exposure. Kaye on the other hand I think is more likely to say no if they don't bring back Chalk but I could be wrong. That all said I don't think paramount has any interest in bringing any of them back.

 

I bet he’s saying he loves them now haha

 

The other main difference between these cases is that Ron Perlman likely won't try to do an impression of Garry, just like Hugo Weaving didn't try and mimic Frank Welker and how Charlie Adler didn't 100% copy Christopher Collins. They were original interpretations.

For whatever reason, most recent Optimus Prime voices are just watered down YouTube-tier Peter Cullen ripoffs. None of them try to do anything original, unlike David Kaye and, oh I don't know, Garry Chalk.

 

Kudos to Chalk for refusing to feed the stupidity. The question gave away the game when the complaint was "he didn't emulate you." It was a master class in how no actor owns a role and simply plays their version of it with the time they're given.

I bet it's 50/50 if they want the job. Believe it or not some actors like doing more work outside of the one thing they did for a few years decades ago. Typecasting sucks. But Hasbro and Paramount, classy studios they are, will hopefully never disclose who they talked with and why they may or may not have come back. Because I could easily see it turning in to a "Thing" if fans found out one of their much beloved stars simply didn't want to come back and play the role anymore.

Hmm, I wonder if that's because they can't always get Peter Cullen but then the voices actors are told "Be Peter Cullen because that's all these fans apparently want..."

The reason Kaye and Chalk were allowed to build their own unique voices was because they were given room to just be their version of Optimus Primal and Megatron. Nobody sat them down and told them "Copy these guys from decades ago."

You saw it in the question to Chalk: "Perlman didn't emulate you very well." VAs are damned if they do their best but flawed recreation of the classic voice, but then they're shat on if they don't sound anything like the classic voice actors either.

It's why I applaud studios for bringing in new voice talent for these kinds of projects. It's a very clear way of separating one version of a character from another. Ron Perlman may not sound like Gary Chalk but that's because his version of Primal isn't going to be the same guy.

 

Hell yeah, boy!
 

 

Yes. bc he got Dan Gilvezan from G1 to reprise his role in the film right?

sometimes it isnt as clear cut as you guys make it.
Im sure Lorenzo or the suits probably wanted some marquee value for the VA.

Maybe Caple wanted the BW actors to return and was overruled or maybe he doesnt care?
None of us know.

It sucks about Chalk,byt Im still guardedly optimistic.

 

Ron Perlman as Primal...I can dig it 

 

I don't blame him for that. He's a good voice actor. The production on those was a disaster.

 

I bet he doesn't care because he's not trying to remake the original Beast Wars. Sure he'll look to it for some inspiration for how the characters may interact off one another, but since this isn't taking place on ancient Earth it's already pretty clear this won't be a 1:1 retelling.

If people are so desperate for it, I'm sure they've still got the DVDs sitting around somewhere.

 

eh, chalk's smoother tone is a lot more wise-sounding than Perlman's more harsh tone. theres a reason why Perlman is usually given grumpy or biker-type roles- his voice is great for more aggressive characters, but i can't see him fitting Primal. in my opinion, at least.

ok... and?

 

For all we know, they could've ask Chalk to do Primal's voice and he refused.

 

well...

 

That was only the case because they gave Hugo Weaving zero reasons to actually give a shit about the role. He's said as much in interviews as I'm aware. It would've been fine if he cared.

Pretty sure it was Gary for the entire Unicron trilogy.

 

Yup.
All the new voice actors for Optimus just go straight to "emulate Peter Cullen" mode.
And if they're being told to do that, my question is why not just get Peter Cullen? Actually put some effort in.
If you're gonna hire a different voice actor, let them do something different.
Like Kaye when he did Animated Optimus.

 

If y'all are mad now, you'd probably best just log off now because I don't think this forum will survive when anyone other than David Kaye is announced as Megatron (if he's even in this...I still haven't seen a decent explanation for how, from a marketing stand point, you'd have both G1 Megatron and BW Megatron existing in the same film universe).

Like, I thought maybe G1 Megs would become a Trex in the Netflix show....but after seeing the original plans for him in TLK, I'm almost certain that's how they're going to deal with the confusion here.

I assumed as much but in my cursory Wikipedia hunt to confirm my memory I didn't see anything concrete and not people to miss the point because they were fact checking I just went with what I had.

Maybe they're told that because fans such as yourself can't move past Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime but they're not able to sign him to the project.

I mean, if it was all about effort then why not get Robert Downey Jr. to sign on? Because it ain't always about "effort." Sometimes an actor just doesn't want the role and even if you could just throw money at them until they did that's not always an option given budgets being a thing.

 

Primal.. Primal never changes. unless he changes from Gary Chalk to Ron Perlman.
I'm actually okay with this choice.

 

Ummm. I grew up with Chalk as Optimus Prime.
So your "can't move past Peter Cullen" bit is incorrect.

And did you miss where I said let them do a different take on Optimus?

 

the reason fans are so adverse to change in this fandom is because most changes haven't been improvements.

people love beast wars not just because it's different, but because it's different and can back it up by being a great show. but it's no surprise when most tf media, including the last one that cast ron perlman, has horrible voice direction and 2-dimension bland writing that doesn't let them feel like anything besides a nameslap.

granted, it's not the most rational line of thinking but it's an understandable one. the fiction continually fails to deliver on really strong character performances, so it's no wonder we tend to latch onto our really good voices.