Optimus Prime

Optimus Prime, known in Japan as Convoy, is a character from the Transformers franchise. Prime is the leader of the Autobots, a group of transforming robots from the planet of Cybertron. The Autobots are constantly at war with another group of transforming robots called Decepticons. According to Bob Budiansky, co-writer of the Transformers series, Dennis O'Neil made his name. In the 1986 animated film Transformers: The Movie, he is killed by his archenemy Megatron, who is the leader of the Decepticons. Optimus Prime is voiced by Peter Cullen.

Optimus Prime

Generation 1

In the Transformers Generation 1 cartoon series, Optimus was originally a naive and defenceless dock worker named Orion Pax. Some time later, Orion was killed by Megatron and rebuilt by Alpha Trion as Optimus Prime.

Films

In the films, Optimus does not have his original Generation 1 look or voice due to the fact they were not based on the cartoon series. In Transformers (2007), Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon, he had his original body, the one from the 2007 film. In Age of Extinction, Optimus appears battle damaged but was revealed to have been hiding from humans with the other Autobots, according to his friend Ratchet. In the movie, he was given a new look after being fixed by a human named Cade Yeager. In The Last Knight, Optimus is seen floating around in space after running low on Energon, a source of energy that transformers run on. When he appears on Cybertron, Optimus had no memory of what had happened to Cybertron, which had imploded on itself in Transformers: Dark of the Moon. In the film, Optimus is brainwashed by Quintessa, the prime of life and turned into Nemesis Prime. He also has the look he had in Transformers: Age of Extinction.

Bibliography

• Furman, Simon (2004). Transformers: The Ultimate Guide. DK Publishing Inc. pp. 110, 118. ISBN 1-4053-0461-8.

Other websites

• Optimus Prime at the Open Directory Project
• Official website
• Pages on Optimus Prime at the Transformers Wiki