You know Optimus Prime, but do you know Optimus Primal?
When it comes to the Transformers universe, there's more than meets the eye.
"Before the beginning, there was Primus, and there was Unicron."
Now, finding one definitive "Transformers" timeline is impossible, as Hasbro — the
company that owns Transformers — has never declared a "Prime" reality.
But if you weave in and out of the different universes that make up the Transformers' incredibly
complex multiversal tapestry, you'll soon realize that most sagas are variations of
the Generation 1 narratives: the original stories first told in the Transformers' original
1984 cartoon and Marvel comic book series.
Patterns emerge, commonalities appear, and from the many we can pull one.
Covering it all would take a book (or three), but we put together a unified timeline — with
a few deviations to explore the really unique diverging realities — to help you navigate
the increasingly complex "Transformers" multiverse.
So if you're ready…
"Let's roll!"
Light and dark, order and chaos, good and evil. Primus and Unicron.
First introduced with zero background in 1986's Transformers: The Movie, the cartoon eventually
elaborated that Unicron was built by a mad genius.
That explanation was somewhat underwhelming for such a momentous character, so the comic
books later assigned Unicron a more fitting origin.
Per Simon Furman’s comics, Unicron is a dark god locked in an eternal battle with
the light god, Primus.
The idea soon solidified into an integral part of Transformer lore, though like any
myth, the details constantly shift.
First Primus and Unicron are from a lost pantheon of gods, then by issue #74, Unicron is the
destroyer of the previous universe, while Primus had been born to protect the current universe.
The sentient core of the Universe, known as The One, created Unicron, then split Primus
off of him.
By the 2013 hardcover history "The Covenant of Primus," the two gods become a singular
being that develop opposing personalities and split into two.
Primus and Unicron may wax and wane in importance through the different realities, but they're
almost always there, setting the cogs in motion for billions of years' worth of stories.
In every version of the story, Primus and Unicron's battle comes to an end, but that
end is rarely permanent.
Primus creates the planet Cybertron by transforming into it, and spawns robotic beings in his
image to do battle against Unicron.
Some stories refer to The Thirteen — the original, legendary Primes who set all of
Transformer history in motion.
Other tales, like IDW's Transformers: Lost Light comics, speak of godlike Transformers
with Primus' essence split between them.
In the movie universe, the first Transformers are called the Dynasty of Primes.
Regardless of universe, though, the first Transformers inevitably arise: powerful, wise,
and ancient, measuring their lives in the billions of years.
Membership shifts depending on the reality, but counted among their number have been Alpha
Trion, Autobot mentor and possessor of glorious robot whiskers; Prima, the first Transformer;
and Liege Maximo, the very short-lived big bad of the Marvel Generation 2 comics.
And, of course, there's Megatronus, also known as The Fallen, the very first Decepticon.
Time itself is fairly irrelevant to the origin of the Transformers, as they live for millions
of years: Even the youngest of these beings are prehistoric.
But few of the Transformers portrayed in the comics and cartoons were among the first born
on Cybertron.
Fans of the live action movies might know the AllSpark as the source of all Transformer
life, a concept introduced in the first Michael Bay film.
The idea of the AllSpark grew out of the time-bending Beast Wars cartoons, where the concept of
a Transformer's "spark" was first established.
Like a human soul, the spark is what makes each Transformer a living being.
When Transformers die, their spark goes out — they can't just be repaired and turned
back on like machines.
Eventually, Primus and the AllSpark were folded into one origin story, when Transformers Prime
adapted the AllSpark to be the vessel through which Primus created life.
Early Cybertronian history is murky and chaotic in even the best-documented of realities.
Warring city-states, battling factions, expansion into the cosmos — there's a lot of ground
to cover, and few pieces of Transformers media delve into ancient events beyond passing mentions.
There is one aspect of this history that rears its ugly head time and time again: The Quintessons.
Making a brief yet unsettling debut in the 1986 animated movie, our first glimpse of
the tentacled creatures was but a taste of things to come.
[Laughing]
Quintessons don't always appear at the same time in Transformer history, but in every
rendition, they are vicious oppressors.
The Five Faces of Darkness episodes established that the mechanical, squid-like race had created
and enslaved the Transformers before being overthrown; In newer interpretations, Quintessons
aren't creators, but conquerors.
In the 2002 Dreamwave comics series, Transformers: Generation One, the Quintessons once seized
control of ancient Cybertron.
Their eventual expulsion led to a Golden Age, one that lasted until Megatron discovered
that the Quintessons still secretly controlled Cybertron's ruling council, prompting the Great War.
And in Netflix's War for Cybertron Trilogy, we learn that before Megatron fought Optimus
and Ultra Magnus, the trio allied under Alpha Trion to overthrow their Quintesson masters.
Above any other Transformer, there's always been one determined to decide his own fate
at any cost: Megatron.
"You are either lying, or you're stupid."
"I'm stupid, I'm stupid!"
Early Megatron was fairly simple, but over the years, he's transformed from a stereotypical
villain into a character with complex motivations.
His story almost always begins the same, rising to power millions of years ago in the gladiator
pits of Cybertron during a long-past Golden Era.
1986's Transformers UK Annual first established this path, wherein the brutal gladiator Megatron
initially aligned himself with Optimus Prime.
In IDW's Megatron Origin comic book mini-series, he's a pacifist who chafes under the corrupt
Cybertronian Senate.
His dissent drives him to violence: He builds a devout following through gladiator warfare,
and eventually assembles an army powerful enough to overthrow the senate.
This rebellion succeeds with help from none other than Orion Pax: who would go on to become
Optimus Prime.
But though Megatron's rise often begins with promise, it always results in a divided, failing
Cybertronian society.
Across Transformers realities, one constant almost always remains: the Great War.
It begins in nearly every reality, across every Cybertron, somewhere between four to
nine million years ago — when Megatron and his Decepticons declare war on the Autobots.
The thing is, rarely since the earliest days of the cartoon has Megatron begun the war
simply out of a desire to conquer.
Rather, the war comes because Megatron feels that only he has the vision to lead Cybertronians
to victory, prosperity, and eventual peace.
In the Aligned continuity — which is comprised of the cartoons, novels, comics and games
starting with the War For Cybertron video game and ending with 2015's "Robots in Disguise”
cartoon — Orion Pax and Megatron both fought to overthrow the planet's caste system.
But when Orion Pax is chosen over Megatron to become a Prime, the Decepticon feels seething
jealousy, and sparks the eternal civil war.
In IDW's The Transformers: Autocracy mini-series, Megatron joins with Orion to overthrow the
tyrannical Zeta Prime.
But once the formerly peaceful bot gets a taste of power, he is loath to give it up.
In the most recent account, Megatron kills Alpha Trion before the War for Cybertron trilogy
begins, because he doesn't really feel his mentor is leading the Cybertronians down the
right path.
The act of murder splits Cybertron into the Autobots and the Decepticons.
Evil is a relative term, and Megatron is an especially complex villain: From his perspective,
the Great War nearly always begins as a rebellion against an unfair system.
Sadly, it usually leads him down a path where he becomes more brutal and tyrannical than
those he once fought against.
The Great War rages for millions of years, devastating the Transformers' home planet.
Back in the franchise's earliest days, Cybertron is so thoroughly decimated that Optimus has
to lead a contingent of Autobots off-world in search of more Energon — the lifeblood
of the Transformer race.
Megatron pursues the Autobots, and the ensuing attack causes both factions' ships to crash
to Earth, leading to the events of the original cartoon.
In some cases, there are planet-wide tragedies that lead to Prime and Megatron's departure.
In two of the newest renditions — the War for Cybertron and Cyberverse cartoons — the
exodus begins when Optimus ejects the AllSpark into space to keep it out of Megatron's hands.
With the source of all Cybertronian life missing, Prime only realizes his mistake as the planet
begins to die.
He has no choice but to venture to Earth to recover the cube, all while the war for Cybertron
pushes the planet past the point of no return
Meanwhile, in the world of the Transformers: Prime cartoon, Megatron's lust for power renders
Cybertron uninhabitable.
The Decepticon leader infects the planet with Dark Energon, a substance not terribly unlike
our own world's uranium.
After learning what Megatron had done, Optimus Prime determines that Cybertron will take
millions of years to recover, leading to the Great Exodus, with every Autobot fleeing to Earth.
While Optimus and Megatron lie dormant on Earth, life continues on.
In 1996's "Beast Wars," we turn our focus to the Maximals, the future descendents of
the Autobots.
Optimus Primal — yes, that is his real name, and no, he's not related to Prime — leads
a small group of Maximals through warp space in pursuit of this story's Megatron.
This time around, Megatron doesn't lead the Decepticons, but their descendents: The Predacons.
These warring factions crash land on prehistoric Earth.
[Animal Noises]
Beast Megatron has traveled back in time after finding a message from the original Megatron,
with instructions to kill the dormant Optimus Prime.
More time travel shenanigans ensue, but the Maximals ultimately fend off the Predacons
and return to their own time.
Meanwhile, in Netflix's War for Cybertron: Kingdom, the search for the AllSpark lands
this universe's Optimus Prime and his crew in the middle of this separate timeline's
version of the Beast Wars conflict.
After what feels like their trillionth crash landing on Earth, the Autobots and Decepticons
meet the Maximals and Predacons, who have once again traveled back in time.
The two factions are born from the scant remains of the surviving Cybertronians, and live under
constant threat from Galvatron and Nemesis: Unicron's lackeys reborn from future Megatron
and Optimus' dead bodies.
It's never established exactly how far into the future they come from; The time travel
gets even more wibbly-wobbly in this universe, but it firmly establishes the prehistoric
Maximal and Predacon battle as an integral part of the Transformers timeline — and
one that's here to stay.
Most Transformer tales begin in the modern era, when the Cybertronians bring their war
to Earth, inevitably entangling humans in their alien conflict.
The stories of this time are too numerous and varied to recount, but suffice it to say
you'll be hard-pressed to find a comic, cartoon, or movie that doesn't drag humans into the Great War.
In the original Generation 1 cartoon and comics, the Autobots and Decepticons awaken on Earth
in the '80s after lying dormant for millions of years.
Some more tales, like IDW's 2005 comic series, show Optimus, Megatron, and their troops landing
on Earth in modern days to begin with, having never lain dormant at all.
Sometimes humans even bond with Transformers.
These human-Cybertronian symbionts are one form of what's known as a Headmaster, with
the human literally transforming into the bot's head.
Other times, like in the IDW continuation Transformers: Regeneration One, the humans
gain superpowers, allowing them to battle the giant bots.
Whether our planet hosts Energon, the AllSpark, powerful artifacts, or just good, old-fashioned
human interference, it seems humanity's home is fated to intersect with the Transformers'
endless war.
Unicron was, is, and will be once again.
The massive Planet Eater first threatens the Transformers in the 1986 animated film, set
in the far-flung "future" of 2006.
Unicron reformats Megatron into Galvatron, and creates a new, more deadly breed of Decepticon.
Stepping up to fill the shoes of a temporarily deceased Optimus Prime, Hot Rod becomes Rodimus
Prime and defeats the galactic devourer once and for all.
Sort of.
After Unicron was defeated in the animated film, he made a detour through the Marvel
comics continuity, terrorizing their universe instead.
His first appearance in this series is notable for setting up Unicron's godlike powers, and
his ability to manipulate the fabric of time, pulling Galvatron out of the future.
Since then, across these timelines and multiverses, Unicron's return has become all but inevitable.
In 2018, after over a decade of avoiding the ultimate evil, IDW comics finally brought
Unicron back with a vengeance.
The massive battle unified the Transformers, and brought 13 years of comic book battle
to an end.
Unicron also appears in the live-action movies, where Transformers: The Last Knight reveals
that Unicron… is the Earth itself, so it seems we've not seen the last of the Planet
Eater after all.
Nearly every Transformers story brings the robots to Earth as they flee Cybertron, but
there is one notable exception.
2001's Transformers: Robots in Disguise cartoon is a bit of a wildcard.
Robots in Disguise does take place on Earth, but instead of an ancient war spilling over
onto our planet, this particular show sees Optimus Prime leading his Autobots to prevent
Megatron and his Predacons from locating an ancient Cybertronian secret: the immensely
powerful Fortress Maximus.
The show never gets into these Transformers' history much, but there are some interesting
quirks to unpack.
This version of Ultra Magnus, for instance, is Optimus Prime's brother, rather than an
old friend.
And on the topic of quirks, who could forget Megatron's six-changer form?
In this reality, the Predacon can transform into, among other things, a giant floating
hand, a bat, and a two-headed dragon.
As for the Decepticons, the only ones in the entire universe are created when Megatron
gets his hands on a small handful of Autobot protoforms — essentially blank slates — and
brainwashes them into sinister new creations.
Robots in Disguise was the first time a Japanese-produced Transformers series was adapted for western
audiences, born from the "Car Robots" anime.
This adaptation was also the first taste of what would become countless official Transformers reboots.
Before this point, each new comic or cartoon would simply tweak Generation 1's continuity
to fit its plot, but Robots in Disguise cut the timeline loose and gave creators free reign.
As a result, Transformers lore has since run wildly in every imaginable direction.
"I found my very own Mini-Con!
Megatron will love me for this!"
Launched in 2004, Transformers: Armada was the second full reboot of the Transformers timeline.
In the world of Armada, there aren't just Autobots and Decepticons — there's also
a third faction called Mini-Cons.
In this timeline, Unicron disguises himself as the Cybertronian moon and creates the Mini-Cons
to kick the Autobot and Decepticon war into high gear.
The tiny bots have the ability to boost the power of their larger brethren, naturally
leading to the Autobots and Decepticons struggling for control over this new breed of Transformers.
Eventually, both factions realize the Mini-Cons are too dangerous, and cast them off into
the far reaches of space.
Predictably, the Mini-Cons end up on Earth, where they are rediscovered millions of years
later by the Cybertronians.
This brings the Transformers into the modern era and, as is tradition, drags humans into
their fight.
Unicron is defeated by the end of Armada, but his story continues in two more series:
Transformers: Energon jumps into the then-near future of 2010 and chronicles yet another
resurrection of the Planet Eater.
Transformers: Cybertron sees the Transformers fleeing to Earth, after the black hole left
by Unicron's destruction threatens their home planet.
Though it's one of the pillars of the "Transformers" multiverse, this alternate timeline had quite
a few detractors, and the repeated focus on Unicron left audiences more than a little
burnt out.
Though 2007's live-action Transformers initially seemed to be a faithful homage to Generation
1, it would quickly grow into an entirely new beast.
The Transformers in Michael Bay's films are not creations of Primus, but of a mysterious
alien race not-so-cleverly dubbed the Creators.
The later films retconned a lot about the earlier ones, but the important part is that
the Transformers come to Earth about 19,000 years before modern times.
At this point, the Cybertronians plan to harvest our sun for Energon – until they discover
humans and mostly agree not to wipe us out.
But the Fallen, one of the original Transformers from the Dynasty of Primes, wants to take
the sun anyways.
This sparks the division of the Transformers, and the formation of the Decepticons.
In other words, this is a rare timeline where the Great War isn't sparked by Megatron, but
his Master.
The Fallen is eventually defeated, but the war rages on.
A recurring habit of the Bay films is to interweave Cybertronian history into our own.
In the 2007 film, they're revealed to have been responsible for humanity's technological advancement.
In Dark of the Moon, they're the reason for the space race.
In Age of Extinction, the Creators were responsible for eradicating the dinosaurs.
And according to The Last Knight, they aided King Arthur, and fought alongside the Allied
forces in both World Wars.
The Transformers had been on Earth for centuries by the events of the first film, but the Autobot-Decepticon
war flares up once again when the AllSpark is rediscovered, kicking off the entire live
action series.
"It's you and me, Megatron."
"No, it's just me, Prime!"
Then, 2018's Bumblebee once again changed the live action universe and rebooted the
entire story.
Instead of Transformers landing on Earth millions of years ago, Bumblebee becomes the first
Autobot to land on earth in 1987.
He encounters a couple of Decepticons, who also landed on Earth, as he awaits the arrival
of Optimus Prime and other Autobots as they flee the war happening on Cybertron.
While much of Transformers' past is relegated to hazy, constantly changing myths, the future
remains a diverging branch of possibilities.
In 2008's Transformers: Animated, the Autobots win the Great War by shooting the AllSpark
into space and keeping its power out of Megatron's hands.
Ultra Magnus then leads the Autobots to victory, after which Cybertron thrives, while Megatron
and the Decepticons flee to the fringes as renegades.
This iteration of Optimus Prime is just a young asteroid miner who stumbles upon the
AllSpark years later in modern times.
The inevitable clash between his crew and Megatron sends them crashing to Earth, where
they lie dormant for just 50 years.
When they awake in a 22nd Century earth, they find the planet awash in robots thanks to
a human scientist, who reverse-engineered Megatron's body and created his own mechanical life.
Animated is one of the more unique takes on Transformers history.
Two Beast Wars characters even make an appearance: Blackarachnia and Waspinator.
If it weren't so wildly detached from established series lore, this next-century continuity
could have been an interesting bridge between the robotic Transformers of the past and present,
and the technorganic bots of the future.
In a franchise as diverging and messy as Transformers, it's hard to say which ending is the definitive finale.
But one particular series provides a better candidate than others: The Beast Wars sequel
series, Beast Machines.
The Predacon leader enslaves all of Cybertron, reformatting Maximals and Predacons alike
into mindless drone servants.
The Beast Machines cartoon is a dark, dystopian tale, where a handful of Maximals led by Optimus
Primal fight a guerilla battle in a war that was over before it started.
The story introduces a number of fascinating concepts.
Transformers are more like cyborgs in Beast Machines, as they embrace their organic sides
and become technorganic creatures, ones that don't so much transform, rather morphing between
their alternate forms.
"What are we?
Robots or animals?"
“Both and neither."
"Well that sure clears it up."
This future even has Botanica, what is believed to be the only plant-based Transformer in
all the multiversal timeline.
The series ends with the Maximals freeing Cybertron from Megatron's control, thereby
saving the planet.
The entire Transformer race is reborn into fully technorganic beings, ushering in a new
Golden Age of Cybertron.
Outside of the Beast Machines cartoon, this future was only ever briefly explored in a
couple of short-lived comic books.
So while this technorganic Cybertronian destiny isn't quite a universal ending, it provides
the closest thing to a final, happy ending the Transformers franchise has ever received.