Pfft, Harvey Weinstein's been doing that for years

 

Aw, I was hoping to see both of the actors who played Optimus Prime in my childhood in the same movie together.

 

Sneak peek at Ron Perlman's voice:

 

Okay, on the one hand, Perlman is legit a fantastic actor, both in front of a camera and behind a mic. He's got a consistently impressive track record and has voiced characters like Teen Titans 2003 Slade and Adventure Time's Lich, among others. The only reason his Primal in POTP sounded so bland was due to bad direction. With the budget afforded to this film, Perlman will undoubtedly have a better voice director to work with. I'm sure he'll do fine.

On the other... Chalk is still very much active and doing acting roles. He was in the Sonic the Hedgehog movie, for god's sake. He's still perfectly capable of doing the voice for Primal, as we've seen in his various holiday videos complimenting those of David Kaye.

I don't know, it's really weird that they're avoiding casting the original voice for Primal when he's undoubtedly cheaper than Perlman and would garner more clout with the fanbase.

 

I love Chalk's voice, but since it's not going to be him voicing Primal in the Netflix show, either, we might as well get used to hearing someone else's voice as the character. And at least Perlman is amazing, so we're not losing out on quality here.

 

I think if anything this probably speaks to this movie's take on the character.

Perlman's got a knack for rough/tough/brute kind of characters. I imagine they plan on making the Maximals a bit more "feral" in contrast to the Autobots.

Not saying Chalk couldnt pull it off [and GAWD do I want Chalk], but i'm not surprised with this direction if this movie's gonna go the way I feel like it is

 

Yeah and we need to hustle as Cullen is in his 80’s.

 

I mean, we don't actually know if Cullen is back for this movie, so it's not like they're snubbing Chalk specifically. I wouldn't mind some kind of Beast Wars cast reunion but this was never going to be that.

 

Yes we very much do.

 

Is there a petition for me to sign yet?

 

I actually wish they would start to transition away from Cullen, and even more-so, Cullen imitators.

Not that I don't love him for Prime, but we need to start normalizing the idea of Prime sounding a little bit different.

 

Err why?

Bugs Bunny, Micky Mouse, Kermit and the rest of their crew all still sound pretty much how they've always sounded, long after the deaths of their original voice actors.

If you can in some way keep continuity you should. It becomes part of the brand and links in the familiarity across generations.

 

Yeah i agree there are Transformers characters whose voices are just as iconic as they look. Optimus, Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave, Jazz, and Ironhide are all pretty iconic sounding to varying degrees. I would hope and expect their voices to continue to be emulated in the future.

 

If I had even the slightest expectation that there was a granule of hope for my enjoying any aspect of this movie I might feel more strongly. I always like Pearlman so I’m not offended. Until some designs start leaking there’s just nothing for me to get hyped over.
What excites me most is the prospect of some Threezero figures of faithfully interpreted Beast Wars characters.

Maybe Chalk and the rest of the OG cast can do a dub after the movie is out for the old guard to enjoy.

I’m waiting on Scott McNeil to get cast. Then they shall have my interest.

 

Well, in Prime's case, they almost always end up being bad imitations. Even Cullen's Prime voice is not what it was in the 80s, but people still accept it as great because it's him doing it.

I think 'iconic' far too often gets misused as 'I remember it'. Of those, Prime is the ONLY one I would identify as iconic. Look at what Hugo Weaving did with Megatron, totally different than Welker, but still a great performance.

(yes, Soundwave has an iconic sound to his voice, but as long as you replicate that in processing, the actual voice is somewhat irrelevant)

 

Seriously.

 

@General Tekno took the words out of my mouth. Ron Pearlman is a great actor and I’m certain he’ll do a fine job. But it really should have been Gary Chalk.

Very disappointed by this news.

 

Initially I was bummed to see Chalk passed over, but then I realized that if this movie is a dumpster fire, Chalk doesn't have to be associated with it.

 

Weeving was doing a pretty generic Frank Welker Megatron. I don't think he is the best example to make your point.

 

How was Weaving's Megatron voice a generic Frank Welker Megatron? It was vastly different than Welker's G1 Megatron voice, and was substantially better, too.