We have known since Comic-Con that something new would play after the credits at the 40th anniversary screenings. For five weeks that was the whole of it: an all new chapter, unnamed and undescribed. Hasbro and Fathom have now said what it is.

It is called Optimus Prime: Awakening. We get twelve minutes of it, it is CG animated, and it carries the late Peter Cullen’s final original voice performance as Optimus Prime. Frank Welker is in it as well, as Megatron and as Soundwave. So the last thing those two recorded together is Prime and Megatron, one more time!

Hasbro is not framing this as a post credits sting. Its own wording calls the short “a fully realized, 12-minute animated short designed as a love letter to the Transformers community and the late Peter Cullen”. It is built on the storytelling and the visuals of the 1986 film rather than parked alongside them. Hasbro also says returning meant a great deal to Cullen, that he felt it was a homecoming to a character he had shaped for more than four decades, and that the performance carries a deeper vulnerability while keeping the strength we all know.

Welker’s statement is the part I keep going back to:

“Optimus Prime and Megatron were made for each other. After all, one needs the perfect hero against the epitome of evil to create great drama. Peter’s portrayal of Prime was born of his own personal beliefs; honesty, loyalty, and always insisting on doing the right thing. This made it easy to be friends. Returning as Megatron and Soundwave for one final story opposite Peter’s Optimus in ‘Optimus Prime: Awakening’ was a real gift. I will miss my friend, but that voice and his heart and values will always be part of Optimus Prime.”

Cullen died last week at 85. It landed on us while we are all still absorbing that, and you can feel it in how carefully the announcement is worded.

The poster tells you who made it

Hasbro’s text names the two voices and stops. The poster carries a full billing block, and that is where the rest of the crew is (this is the second time this month that reading the small print has beaten reading the press release).

The billing block from the Optimus Prime: Awakening poster, black type on the poster's yellow ground, reading A Hasbro Entertainment production, Optimus Prime Awakening, Peter Cullen, Frank Welker, animation and imagery by The Third Floor, music by Bobby Krlic, edited by Sean Rourke, based on Hasbro's Transformers franchise, co-produced by Harrison Stutz, Fathom Entertainment, produced by Zev Foreman and Cyrus Warner, written by Ryan Parrott, directed by Josh Wassung

The billing block on Hasbro’s own poster.

Read across it and you get directed by Josh Wassung, written by Ryan Parrott, animation and imagery by The Third Floor, music by Bobby Krlic and edited by Sean Rourke. Zev Foreman and Cyrus Warner produce, Harrison Stutz co-produces, and it sits under a Hasbro Entertainment banner with Fathom.

Parrott is a name plenty of us will know off the Power Rangers books. Krlic scored Midsommar and Beef, which is not the CV you would guess for a Transformers short, and that is exactly why I want to hear it. The Third Floor credit matters to us too. “Animation and imagery by” is how this stops being a rumour about a scene and becomes a piece of work with a studio’s name on it.

Dates, markets, and one thing the sources do not agree on

Fathom has added ten territories for us on top of the previously announced United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and Germany. The new ones are France, Singapore, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and Peru.

Now the bit to check before you book. Hasbro’s announcement says the short plays after “select anniversary screenings”. Fathom’s own release page says something different: “Every screening also includes the world premiere of OPTIMUS PRIME: AWAKENING, an all-new CG-animated short.” Those are not the same promise, and we are not going to pretend one of them settles the other.

The run length has the same problem. Fathom’s release page reads “six days only, September 17-22”. Fathom’s own Apology Tour hub still reads “In Theatres September 17 - 21, 2026”. Hasbro’s text puts the U.S. run through September 21 with international dates through September 22. If you want a specific night, put your postcode into the Fathom listing and read what your own theatre says. That includes not trusting our summary of it.

What this does not tell us about disc two

This morning we covered the 40th Anniversary 4K steelbook going up for pre-order, and the extras on disc two include a line reading “Animated Coda (TBD) (2026)”. The obvious thought is that the coda and the short are the same thing.

Nobody has said that. Shout has not named it. Today’s announcement is about the theatrical presentation and never mentions the disc. Twelve minutes is also a lot of runtime to file under “coda”. We will update that post the moment either company says one way or the other, and until then it is an open question, not a fact we are going to imply.

For the rest of the anniversary run, our Transformers: The Movie hub keeps the campaign in one place, including the Celebration of Life concert from last month.

Sources

Key art and billing block: Hasbro Entertainment / Fathom Entertainment.