Netflix’s Transformers Anime Trailer Heralds The Beginning Of A New Trilogy

Netflix’s Transformers anime trailer kicks off a new era for the franchise that has been around since many of our childhoods. The robots in disguise will appear in a new anime series on Netflix. The classic Transformers franchise created a plethora of content for its audience. Spanning comics books, novels, video games, TV series, and a live-action film franchise, it seems that Transformers will always be around. This new iteration focuses more on the story’s beginnings, as featured in the brand new trailer. 

Transformers Has Been Around As Long As Most Millennials 

Image via screengrab

The Transformers franchise is an anomaly when it comes to surviving the test of time. While many of our favorite franchises from decades ago, like He-Man, Star Wars, Star Trek, and more have all experienced lulls in their relevancy and popularity, before a resurgence. Transformers is a little different in that regard. Since its inception from the 80s, there has always been some kind of Transformers content on the air, or in print. The animated Transformers are slightly more special than its other media, given that it’s widespread worldwide syndication made it accessible to an entire generation of kids. And I feel that definitely contributed to the massive box office success of the live-action Transformers movies decades later. 

The Transformers Franchise Has Seen Lots Of Different Origin Stories

Netflix’s Transformers anime, titled Transformers: War For Cybertron Trilogy: Seige, looks like it’s a retelling of the origin story. Almost all Transformers fiction follows a variation of the same origin story. Hailing from a planet known as Cybertron, Transformers are basically sentient machines who are at war with one another due to differing philosophies. The good guys are Autobots, and the bad guys Decepticons. The war on their planet eventually spills over into Earth, for various reasons based on the iteration telling the story.

Image via Hasbro.

Almost every series eventually features Transformers on Earth, who can transform into everyday vehicles. These range from the average cars, to military vehicles, helicopters, planes, and even construction vehicles. This was sort of the premise of ‘Transformers’; their ability to transform into other things. The characters originate from a toy line by Hasbro. Each animated series or film seems to reboot the story for a new universe, with tweaks to the origin story, characters or sequence of events. (Because, then they can make new toys.) The Netflix Transformers anime trailer seems to reboot the universe again with a new take. 

Netflix’s Transformers Anime Creates A New Line Of Web Series For The Franchise

Transformers has gone through many iterations, from countless reboots to even a Beast Wars version where instead of cars, they became mechanized animals. But with advances in technology, the animated Transformers are always the most interesting. So Netflix’s Transformers anime seems to be breathing new life into the franchise with a brand new show. Also continuing Netflix’s seemingly new mandate of heavily investing in anime content, given they announced Altered Carbon and The Witcher anime series currently in development. 

The Transformers Anime Trailer Opens On Familiar Ground And Never Leaves It

Image via Screen Grab.

The opening of Netflix’s Transformers anime trailer begins with the war on Cybertron between the two different Transformers factions already in motion. The usual suspects are in the trailer, such as Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots and our main fan-favorite hero. We also glimpse Megatron, giving an impassioned speech to someone, about the evils of the Autobots. It seems that in this incarnation, there are some political side stories at play too. Megatron looks like he’s essentially trying to gaslight the situation and making it seem like it’s the Autobots who are the aggressors, while the Decepticons are just defending themselves. Although whom he’s trying to convince is still a mystery. It’s a unique politically deceptive approach to a story that’s been pretty straight forward thus far. 

The rest of the trailer plays out like a massive action set-piece. It seems that both sides are searching for the Allspark, the creator of life in many Transformers origin stories. Also a storyline used in the first live-action movie. There’s also a mysterious figure that approaches, whom we don’t see revealed. Similarly, we know little else about the story for this new Transformers Anime. 

Animation Style Of Netflix’s Transformers Anime Trailer Looks Gritty & Raw

While CGI animation is not always the best route, when dealing with machines, it actually looks good here. Netflix’s Transformers anime trailer showcases the style of Anime that the series will be in, and it’s pretty complementary to the show’s tone. Seemingly set entirely on Cybertron, it looks like the show is going to be all Transformers all the time. Which makes sense, given that this is supposedly only the first part of a planned trilogy. The atmosphere of the trailer feels very run down, with our characters al beat up, ragged and seemingly the underdogs of this story. A stark contrast to the usually shiny and glimmering Transformers that we’re treated to in most shows.

Netflix’s New Transformers Anime Is A Trilogy

Transformers: War On Cybertron: Seige is actually the first part of a planned trilogy by Netflix. The first part, titled Seige, seemingly focuses entirely on the civil war on Cybertron. If the this incarnation follows the usual trend for Transformers stories as well, the second part may see our established heroes, and villains, leave Cybertron for Earth. Possibly in search of the Allspark. It’s a great idea to break up the story arcs into different parts, or seasons. This allows the creators to structure the story around specific episode counts, rather than trying to fit it all into the first season, with no guarantee of a second. 

Image via Hasbro.

There is currently no official release date for Netflix’s Transformers anime. 

What did you think about the new Transformers Siege trailer? Let us know in the comments below. 

Featured image via Hasbro.

Netflix’s Transformers Anime Trailer Heralds The Beginning Of A New Trilogy
Shah Shahid