10 Things We Want From Netflix's Transformers: War For Cybertron
In the words of the sages "Megatron must be stopped, no matter the cost."
In June 2020, Netflix will release Transformers: War For Cybertron: Siege, a show that Transformers fans have waited decades for.
Coming from Rooster Teeth Animation, in conjunction with Hasbro, Polygon Pictures, and Netflix, this latest entry in the 36-year-old Transformers franchise promises a new animation style as well as a focus on more adult storytelling. While shows in the past have been filled with Easter Eggs and references for returning fans, this is the first one that has been created from the ground up with adult fans of the franchise in mind.
This is something the fandom has had their hopes up for more than once through the years. Both the Bayverse movies and the YouTube Power Of The Primes cartoons were sold to us as Transformers for grown-ups, and both failed to really fill that role, instead coming across much like the extended toy adverts that the franchise started out as.
When War For Cybertron rolls out, the situation should be very different, but that doesn't mean the show will be any good. Here are ten things Transformers: War For Cybertron needs if it's going to light our darkest hour.
10. Don't Be Limited By Toyline Tie-Ins
This might be a tough one as this show, like the YouTube Prime Wars show before it, is named after the War For Cybertron Trilogy toyline which focuses on the early days of the titular war, and will be getting its own line of redecorated figures.
If, as happened in all three of the Prime Wars seasons, we only see characters from the Siege arc of the toyline then the scope of the war can't truly be shown. While each arc of a toyline has maybe ten to fifteen figures, Prime Wars showed that this is nowhere near enough to make Cybertron feel inhabited.
Earthrise, the second arc of War For Cybertron, brings more bots into the line and shows them in their Earth alt-modes as it tells the story of the Transformers coming to our planet. Presumably we'll be seeing this as the basis for season two of the Netflix show, so introducing some of these characters early on would be a step in the right direction.
Ultimately though, the Transformers franchise contains hundreds of named characters, dozens of which most fans would recognize if they were just in the background of a scene. By not tying themselves exclusively to the toyline of the same name, this show could give us the best version of the War For Cybertron.