Ron Perlman and Star Wars’ Mark Hamill Added to the Cast of Transformers Power of the Primes

I enjoyed the TR finale. Nice lead in to POTP.

I totally forgot about this. I was watching the Miss 2059 on go90, which honestly is a better series, imho.

Still I'm surprised they didn't get Garry Chalk to reprise his roll as Optimus Primal. That would have been cool, and with so many willing to jump in to these series, I would think he would too.

Rodimus Knight wrote:I totally forgot about this. I was watching the Miss 2059 on go90, which honestly is a better series, imho.

Still I'm surprised they didn't get Garry Chalk to reprise his roll as Optimus Primal. That would have been cool, and with so many willing to jump in to these series, I would think he would too.

I am sure he would. But I think he simply wasnt asked and they went in favor of a more known actor. Paul Eiding is alive and well but they chose to have Will Wheaton voice Perceptor instead.

Rodimus Knight wrote:Still I'm surprised they didn't get Garry Chalk to reprise his roll as Optimus Primal. That would have been cool, and with so many willing to jump in to these series, I would think he would too.

I've seen this quite a bit already, and I'm sure it will be the focus of a lot of discussion. To fans of BW Gary Chalk is as revered as Peter Cullen is to fans of the original series, which I understand.

However, to try to put things in perspective. Another actual "Optimus Prime" did not appear until RiD 2001, voiced by Neil Kaplan, which was serviceable. I know fans initially thought that ANY Optimus should have been voiced by Cullen, but when you come to understand that these are all different versions of Prime in different continuities, it becomes easier to understand. Thus we have Gary Chalk and David Kaye voicing him as well in different series.

The first I think *violation* was when they chose John Bailey over Cullen in Machinima's CW. Now all respect to John, he is a great VA, and IMHO, I figured that CW was just a small production, so I didn't mind him doing the role, he did well, no complaints on my end. I was actually surprised when Cullen signed on to do Titans Return.

Fans of Gary Chalk should take the same approach. He possibly was not asked, or maybe he turned it down due to schedule conflicts? I know a lot of fans (including myself) are excited about the additional *Star Power*, but lets face it. Most of these are B list actors. Actors that have a cult following, are huge in geek culture, (Comic-Cons etc...)but are not "A" list Actors. Would it have been nice to see Gary Chalk reprise the role, of course, and who knows, in time we may yet see him do so, but for now, I do look forward to see how Ron Perlman approaches the character.

o.supreme wrote:The first I think *violation* was when they chose John Bailey over Cullen in Machinima's CW. Now all respect to John, he is a great VA, and IMHO, I figured that CW was just a small production, so I didn't mind him doing the role, he did well, no complaints on my end. I was actually surprised when Cullen signed on to do Titans Return.

I dont think its comparable. CW used none of the same cast members as G1 and they went for a non union appraoch.

But ever since TR and now with POTP they have more money to get unionized actors, and they are getting bigger names. We have G1 Optimus, Rodimus and now Grimlock but they went for more "sensationalist" names for other characters.

There's also the fact that Garry Chalk is based in Vancouver, Canada, while the Prime Wars Trilogy cartoons use actors predominately from the Los Angeles talent pool.


(Also, how come POTP gets its own thread while TR just took over CW's thread?)

Sabrblade wrote:(Also, how come POTP gets its own thread while TR just took over CW's thread?)

Because there was a pretty big gap in between the two. Here we have news the same day regarding the 2 different series. So two ongoing discussions about different series.

https://lrmonline.com/news/mark-hamill-and-ron-perlman-join-machinima-hasbros-transformers-prime-wars-trilogy/

CAST
NEW TALENT FOR POWER OF THE PRIMES

• Ron Perlman (OPTIMUS PRIMAL) – Star of the original Hellboy franchise, Sons of Anarchy, Hand of God, and Adventure Time.
• Jamie King (SOLUS PRIME) – Star of Hart of Dixie and Star Wars: The Clone Wars. 
• Gregg Berger (GRIMLOCK/VOLCANICUS) – The original voice of Grimlock from the 1986 film The Transformers: The Movie.
• Nuufolau Joel Seanoa (Samoa Joe) (PREDAKING) – Professional wrestler currently signed to WWE.
• Mikey Way (SNARL) – Musician best known as the bassist from the rock band My Chemical Romance.

RETURNING TALENT:

• Mark Hamill (MEGATRONUS) – Star of the Star Wars franchise. Also known for his work as the The Joker in various animated Batman projects.
• Wil Wheaton (PERCEPTOR) – Star of The Big Bang Theory and Star Trek: The Next Generation.
• Judd Nelson (RODIMUS CRON) – Star of The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo’s Fire and the original voice of Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime from the 1986 animated film The Transformers: The Movie.
• Kari Wahlgren (VICTORION) – Well known voice over actress with credits including Rick and Morty, The Fairly Odd Parents, and Phineas and Ferb. 
• Jason Marnocha (MEGATRON) – Actor from Bat In the Sun’s popular YouTube series Super Power Beat Down. Previously voiced the character of Megatron in COMBINER WARS and TITANS RETURN.
• Abby Trott (WINDBLADE) – Voice over actress with credits including video games Halo Wars 2 and Killer Instinct. Previously voiced the character of Windblade in COMBINER WARS and TITANS RETURN.
• Patrick Seitz (OVERLORD) – Voice over actor with credits including Call of Duty: WWII and World of Warcraft: Legion. Previously voiced the character of Devastator in COMBINER WARS and Overlord in TITANS RETURN.
• Rob Dyke (DEVASTATOR) – YouTube creator best known for his Seriously Strange series. Previously voiced the character of Devastator in TITANS RETURN.
• DashieGames (MENASOR) – Popular YouTube gamer with more than 6 million subscribers. Previously voiced the character of Menasor in COMBINER WARS and TITANS RETURN.
• MatPat (SWOOP) – YouTube influencer and creator of the web series Game Theorist, Film Theorist, GT Live and MatPat’s Game Lab. Previously voiced the character of Computron in TITANS RETURN.
• Frank Todaro (SLUDGE) – Voice over actor who previously voiced Starscream and Trypticon in COMBINER WARS and TITANS RETURN. Other credits include the video game franchise LittleBigPlanet.

Hasbro and Machinima, who have been partners on the first two entries in the Prime Wars cartoon trilogy, today announced the full cast list for the finale of the trilogy, Power of the Primes. Interestingly, they note that the last installment will be airing on go90 in the "Spring of 2018", which is just a few short months away, when the Power of the Primes toyline will still be going full force. This is a marked departure from the previous two series, Combiner Wars and Titans Return, which both began airing well after the two toylines had finished and were no longer being sold/promoted in stores- though to be fair, the Titans Return line hadn't quite been finished in stores yet.

So, given the quick turnaround in airtime, and the voice talent for the final cartoon series in the trilogy, are you hopeful for this cartoon? Let us know in the Energon Pub Forums!

CAST
NEW TALENT FOR POWER OF THE PRIMES

• Ron Perlman (OPTIMUS PRIMAL) – Star of the original Hellboy franchise, Sons of Anarchy, Hand of God, and Adventure Time.
• Jamie King (SOLUS PRIME) – Star of Hart of Dixie and Star Wars: The Clone Wars. 
• Gregg Berger (GRIMLOCK/VOLCANICUS) – The original voice of Grimlock from the 1986 film The Transformers: The Movie.
• Nuufolau Joel Seanoa (Samoa Joe) (PREDAKING) – Professional wrestler currently signed to WWE.
• Mikey Way (SNARL) – Musician best known as the bassist from the rock band My Chemical Romance.

RETURNING TALENT:

• Mark Hamill (MEGATRONUS) – Star of the Star Wars franchise. Also known for his work as the The Joker in various animated Batman projects.
• Wil Wheaton (PERCEPTOR) – Star of The Big Bang Theory and Star Trek: The Next Generation.
• Judd Nelson (RODIMUS CRON) – Star of The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo’s Fire and the original voice of Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime from the 1986 animated film The Transformers: The Movie.
• Kari Wahlgren (VICTORION) – Well known voice over actress with credits including Rick and Morty, The Fairly Odd Parents, and Phineas and Ferb. 
• Jason Marnocha (MEGATRON) – Actor from Bat In the Sun’s popular YouTube series Super Power Beat Down. Previously voiced the character of Megatron in COMBINER WARS and TITANS RETURN.
• Abby Trott (WINDBLADE) – Voice over actress with credits including video games Halo Wars 2 and Killer Instinct. Previously voiced the character of Windblade in COMBINER WARS and TITANS RETURN.
• Patrick Seitz (OVERLORD) – Voice over actor with credits including Call of Duty: WWII and World of Warcraft: Legion. Previously voiced the character of Devastator in COMBINER WARS and Overlord in TITANS RETURN.
• Rob Dyke (DEVASTATOR) – YouTube creator best known for his Seriously Strange series. Previously voiced the character of Devastator in TITANS RETURN.
• DashieGames (MENASOR) – Popular YouTube gamer with more than 6 million subscribers. Previously voiced the character of Menasor in COMBINER WARS and TITANS RETURN.
• MatPat (SWOOP) – YouTube influencer and creator of the web series Game Theorist, Film Theorist, GT Live and MatPat’s Game Lab. Previously voiced the character of Computron in TITANS RETURN.
• Frank Todaro (SLUDGE) – Voice over actor who previously voiced Starscream and Trypticon in COMBINER WARS and TITANS RETURN. Other credits include the video game franchise LittleBigPlanet.

got dang this has some serious star power behind it. there've been hollywood movies that've had less notable actors in it! but the question remains; will it continue the upward trend that TR set, or fumble back down towards CW?

But can Predaking come out to Samoa Joe's entrance music?

What If Grimlock do this to Primal?

Given how well Samoa Joe does with WWE's terribly written promo scripts, I expect he'll do just fine with this.

Snarl? What? Okay then. I guess it’s his time to have the spotlight.

EDIT: Oh, we have Swoop and Sludge too. Poor Slug. He probably wouldn’t care.

OH damn! Jaime King is from my home state! Also, her name is spelled wrong in the press release quote.

Neato!

Samoa Joe as Predaking? I never saw that one coming. Although I recently read that he was an avid gamer and started off as a dancer. (He is not related to the Rock or Roman Reigns) But I hope he can pull off a raspy G1 Predaking voice. I dont want to hear Predaking start talking more than 5 word sentences.

Considering how different the choices for this series has been, I almost see Optimus Primal being Prime reborn by Onyx. Just saying.

I can't believe hey didn't get Gary Chalk to play Optimus Primal! What a load of crap this is.

BlastWave2 wrote:I can't believe hey didn't get Gary Chalk to play Optimus Primal! What a load of crap this is.

Garry Chalk is based in Vancouver, Canada. These shows use union actors mainly from the Los Angeles pool of voice talent.

Sabrblade wrote:

BlastWave2 wrote:I can't believe hey didn't get Gary Chalk to play Optimus Primal! What a load of crap this is.

Garry Chalk is based in Vancouver, Canada.

That explains him appearing as one of the villains in Arrow

Also, vancouver Canada is now the home base of Marcello Matere, the man behind Transfomrers packaging art from Armada to now.

You see guys, canada is where all the cool kids hang out!