12 Brilliant Ways TV Characters Were Brought Back From The Dead

8. Optimus Prime €“ The Transformers

Forget Michael Bay's CGI fest; the original animated movie from the 1980s was the best cinematic outing. Awe-inspiring with cheese-fest rock ballads, a planet-eating transformer called Unicron, the slaughter of several recurring characters and most significantly of all, the death of Autobot leader Optimus Prime. Causing such a climatic shift in storytelling, the subsequent season three of the animated series was a very different beast. Hot Rod was now leading the good guys at Rodimus Prime and Megatron had been reborn as Galvatron. But by the season end there was something of a renaissance in the epically titled 'The Return Of Optimus Prime'. Our favourite hero was back but with a much darker twist; he was now a trap created by scientists seeking to destroy the autobots and they almost succeed. Dark-Optimus was a shocking event for kid audiences at the time; he infects the good guys and battles new leader Rodimus Prime, defeating him, and almost succeeding in destroying the Autobots entirely. Thankfully Optimus regains his senses at the last moment and retakes his place as leader once more, ensuring that fans got to open up their beloved Optimus Prime toys one more time.