'Transformers: War For Cybertron' Trailer: Netflix Unveils A Look At Part One Of Its New Anime Series
Netflix has carved out a nice chunk of territory for itself with anime shows based on recognizable properties like Castlevania, Dragon Quest, Godzilla, and Ultraman, and soon the streaming service will take audiences to Cybertron in a Transformers anime series.
During New York Toy Fair this past weekend, the first trailer debuted for part one of Netflix's Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy, entitled Siege, which takes us back to the intense planetary battle between the Autobots and Decepticons that's rarely been seen in the live-action movies. Check out the trailer below.
Transformers Anime Series Trailer
This show is the result of a collaboration between Netflix, Hasbro, producers at Rooster Teeth (gen:LOCK, RWBY), and animation from Polygon Pictures (Godzilla, Knights of Sidonia). It's run by folks with tons of experience in the Transformers storytelling world: FJ DeSanto (Transformers: Titans Return, Transformers: Power of the Primes) is the showrunner, while George Krstic (Megas XLR), Gavin Hignight (Transformers: Cyberverse), and Brandon Easton (Agent Carter, Transformers: Rescue Bots) are contributing writers for the series. Actors Jake Foushee and Jason Mamocha lend their voices to Optimus Prime and Megatron, respectively.
Chapter 2 of the trilogy will be called Earthrise, and Chapter 3 has not been publicly named yet. Personally, I'm hoping the reason for the secrecy about the third part's name is because DeSanto and his team are taking a big swing by shifting this story in an unexpected direction, and the title of the third part would be a spoiler for what they're planning to do. But that's just speculation.
Here's the part where I admit that I'm still a little confused by exactly how all this is going to play out. Entertainment Weekly says the series is comprised of six 22-minute episodes, so I'm not really sure how that squares with the word "trilogy" in the title. I guess each part of the trilogy gets two episodes devoted to it? When this show was initially announced, /Film's Ethan Anderton tried to explain some of the details, pointing out that the Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy name is "just the designation given to a new line of toys from Hasbro that will inform the series. There might end up being a three season arc for the series, but it's not exactly like a film trilogy. The title also allows for any comics, cartoons or other possible media to be easily recognized under the same story banner." I feel like Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride, talking to Netflix and Hasbro about their use of "trilogy": "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
Update: FJ DeSanto reached out to clarify that each season will consist of six episodes, meaning there will be 18 episodes in total when the series is completed.
In any case, there's no official release date for Siege yet, but the series will debut on Netflix sometime in 2020.