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IGN has posted an interview with Transformers Prime's Roberto Orci regarding the next Transformers cartoon now that Transformers Prime Beast Hunters has concluded. Orci confirms that he will be producing the next series, and much of the Transformers Prime production team will be involved. He goes on to to say that while the next series will be more geared toward a younger audience it is not a reboot and it will take place within the Transformers Prime continuity. When asked if the voice cast will be returning he replied yes, provided they are interested in returning. The full interview can be viewed by clicking here.

IGN: I don’t know if you’ve heard of cynical people on the Internet, but they do exist. You know that some adult fans will say, “Oh, they’re going to make it a total kid thing now. It’s going to just be for kids!” What would you say to that, as far as the balance you’re looking to strike?

Orci: I would say that clever wit always makes it something more adult. I think the look of it, you may find, is more kid-friendly. But we certainly don’t intend to be any less entertaining or any less Transformers. But there is a little bit of truth to that. I won’t deny that also, yes, we’re trying to make sure that younger kids who really love Transformers aren’t put off by its intensity.

Cue fanrage in three.. two..

Oh, man, they're gonna make it a total kids thing now. It's going to be just for kids!

But seriously, a kinda hope they do traditional animation rather than CGI.

I feel quite indifferent towards this

....GRAAAHHH!!!!!!

Just kidding. Although its too bad it will be less intense. I felt Animated was pretty intense even for its cartoony look, so hopefully he means that loosely.

anything this guy is involved with that is transformers sucks.

Welll this gives us next to no information at all. But i can hope that its a continuation of prime.

I can't wait for more information!

MINDVVIPE wrote:....GRAAAHHH!!!!!!

Just kidding. Although its too bad it will be less intense. I felt Animated was pretty intense even for its cartoony look, so hopefully he means that loosely.

I thought animated when the news it would be more 'kiddy' was dropped. Animated looks kid friendly and certainly would grab their attention, but it had a lot for adult fans too.

Were younger audiences put off by Prime's 'Intensity'? Or is that just the view of Hasbro's psychics under the basement officials because the toys may be shelfwarming?
(because you know, the very thought that kids could have enjoyed the show, but ignored the toys because A; they were all Bumblebee and B; half the characters they liked were either never on shelves, or looked pretty sucky when they were is propostorus. Hasbro have done RESEARCH on this, y know!)

If they make anything like animated, I'll have to stop collecting transformers for another 4 years, like in 2006.
Make more violent transformers shows. I don't care about family entertainment, there needs to be more shows like prime, where heads go
I may be messed up, but wars are violent. People get their limbs blown off. Make it realistic.

aw man, a kids show?? like transformers animated!?
transformers prime beasts hunters was awesome, and they arent continuing with it?
and if it is set in the same continuity as prime, how could they add bumblebee, ore optimus?

I think people are reading to much into this. No were dose it say that any past transformers cartoons were "too intense". I think that they are just trying to make sure people know that it will be "kid friendly". I mean,transformers are supposed to be for kids. Right?

I'm sencing a crossover between rescue bots, transformers animated and a drop of transformers prime. If they wanna do a kiddie show, them let them do it. As long as when this new series is done, they can get back to some hardcore Transformers action. Y'all know what I'm talking about. Intense of all times. And if this new upcoming series turns out to be good then its good and it gets multiple series. But if it turns out to be bad then they can cut it and get back to some some Transformers spark extinguishing action.

i don't get this trend lately of having cartoons last 2 or 3 seasons and then end them...only to have a new "version" start up shortly after. whats wrong with cartoons lasting 5 to 10 seasons like any normal show?

like in this case in particular, it was apparently a well performing and obviously well received show so why end it? and when end it so prematurely with a half season and then a movie? why not at least give it a full season like the first two? and this seems to have happened to all the Transformers show that have come since G1.

So these 2 are back and they want to dumb the next series down for kids. Great.

Bouncy X wrote:i don't get this trend lately of having cartoons last 2 or 3 seasons and then end them...only to have a new "version" start up shortly after. whats wrong with cartoons lasting 5 to 10 seasons like any normal show?

like in this case in particular, it was apparently a well performing and obviously well received show so why end it? and when end it so prematurely with a half season and then a movie? why not at least give it a full season like the first two? and this seems to have happened to all the Transformers show that have come since G1.

The goal of any TV series is 65 episodes for syndication, so the show can be shopped around to additional networks that want to air it. Now that Prime has hit that milestone, Hasbro could continue but no longer needs to do so. While they might make money off additional seasons, they'll make more money if they have two shows that both make it to syndication they can then shop around. If the shows are thematically connected, they have an additional selling point, and an interested network could pick up both.

Win-win-win for Hasbro that way, rather than just one solitary win.


I'm interested in what Orci's planning and eagerly await more info. Assuming they're continuing from Prime, I still see a lot of potential plot to work with.

EagleBot13 wrote:I think people are reading to much into this. No were dose it say that any past transformers cartoons were "too intense". I think that they are just trying to make sure people know that it will be "kid friendly". I mean,transformers are supposed to be for kids. Right?

But that's kinda my point, what wasn't/ isn't kid friendly about Prime?
Why do they feel the need to make that evident this time? He directly says something about a conscious effort to make sure younger audiences are not put off by it being intense, or something like that. I take that to mean they felt Prime was 'a bit intense for younger audiences'
Yeah, Transformers is for kids, but there is a difference between how TF is usually handled and 'kiddy' shows like rescue bots, right? Otherwise there is no need for the distinction and rescue bots might as well be the main line.

I don't feel this new show will be bad. Animated, the Unicron trilogy all fall under kid friendly in my book and do the job (not the biggest fan of Armada and parts of energon, but their flaws don't lie in what audience they target, I believe) I get what they are saying.
But this interview clearly makes it look like they feel Prime was 'too intense' Otherwise there's no need for this issue, discussion and interview to exist. Transformers has never been Mickey Mouse and sugar fairies, it's allowed to have a bit of maturity, and some folk are just worried that will get lost.
Considering we are all adults or older teens loving and talking about this franchise on such a dedicated website I don't think it's such a problem to hope the new show will still have something that appeals to us But none of us are expecting TF's to suddenly be about exploding heads, bot sex and substance abuse

So a few are over reacting about something that doesn't exist yet. 'Tis the internet. It happens

Beast Wars and Animated were both very kid friendly and both enjoyable for Adults.

As long as the animation isn't like some of the crap on tv already I'm fine with it.

Well, this is going to suck... There will probably be no Decepticon wins whatsoever, and every episode will be just as predictable as every episode in TF Prime.

The one thing I do wish is for them to ditch the cgi. They could take the money spent on the cgi and give us a bigger cast.

The problem is that Prime is considered too intense for kids. As many have said, "what's so intense?"

I can answer that: remember the train robbery episode with the introduction of Mech and Silas? I bought the book adaptation (for kids) and it completely removed Mech from the episode. There you go: human villains in a robot cartoon is TOO INTENSE.

I think the big problem is how badly TMNT is kicking Prime's @$$. Kids talk about TMNT and buy the toys; not so with Prime. Those toys mostly go to adult collectors, and Hasbro is clearly more interested in kids (look at their abysmal MP releases compared to Takara).

The new cartoon will aim to capture kids like TMNT has, and I , quite frankly, hope it fails. Hasbro refuses to acknowledge its core demographics and I find hubris leads to inevitable failure. Or pride comes before the fall.

TMNT is a tough horse to beat; but if Prime toy sales have floundered, Hasbro can either try to get the kiddies again (as is happening now) OR they could consider tailoring the product to their real customers. To put it simply: imagine the sales potential of a TF line with characters we want, rather than a billion variations of BB and Optimus.

I'll be shocked if new TF doesn't pimp the hell out of BB and Optimus: clearly Prime failed in that regard specifically, Hasbro could say.

Metrosuplex wrote:The problem is that Prime is considered too intense for kids. As many have said, "what's so intense?"

I can answer that: remember the train robbery episode with the introduction of Mech and Silas? I bought the book adaptation (for kids) and it completely removed Mech from the episode. There you go: human villains in a robot cartoon is TOO INTENSE.

I think the big problem is how badly TMNT is kicking Prime's @$$. Kids talk about TMNT and buy the toys; not so with Prime. Those toys mostly go to adult collectors, and Hasbro is clearly more interested in kids (look at their abysmal MP releases compared to Takara).

The new cartoon will aim to capture kids like TMNT has, and I , quite frankly, hope it fails. Hasbro refuses to acknowledge its core demographics and I find hubris leads to inevitable failure. Or pride comes before the fall.

TMNT is a tough horse to beat; but if Prime toy sales have floundered, Hasbro can either try to get the kiddies again (as is happening now) OR they could consider tailoring the product to their real customers. To put it simply: imagine the sales potential of a TF line with characters we want, rather than a billion variations of BB and Optimus.

I'll be shocked if new TF doesn't pimp the hell out of BB and Optimus: clearly Prime failed in that regard specifically, Hasbro could say.

Kids are their real customers.

ok upgrade bad feeling to disturbance in the force. Seriously how can any one look at this and say ok we have good tv show has good rating but you know what we should dumb it down to the level of 1980 complexity and make it a really kiddy show -didn't work for toonami won't work here. I would say lower expectations.

njb902 wrote:
Kids are their real customers.

I expected you to say something a little better than that!

Why do you say kids are the real customer? Is it because Hasbro told you?