5 Transformers Facts You Won't Learn From The Movies

gamerant.com:

The live action Transformers movies have had a rocky history, to say the least. The Michael Bay-directed films were initially well-received, but earned more and more detractors over time. However, Travis Knight’s Bumblebee in 2018 proved to be a popular change of pace, earning it a sequel in the form of next year’s Rise of the Beasts.

That said, even the more well-liked Transformers films have only managed to scratch the surface of the series’ lore. In the cartoons, and especially in the comics, the Transformers series has carved out a rich and expansive backstory for the heroes and villains of Cybertron — which fans won’t learn much about just by watching the movies. Here are just a few fun facts about Transformers history that have never made it to the big screen.

Michael Bay Admits He Thought Transformers Was Awful After Test Screenings

Every Transformers film to date has featured Optimus Prime, heroic leader of the Autobots, in some capacity. Despite this, though, none of them have been particularly concerned with Optimus’ backstory. But ever since the original 1984 cartoon, it’s been an established part of the series’ canon that Optimus hasn’t always been a Prime. The Season 2 episode “War Dawn” provides a look at Cybertron’s Golden Age, before the Autobot-Decepticon war began.

In this episode, it’s revealed that Optimus was originally a humble dockworker named Orion Pax, who was damaged during an attack by Megatron. Orion was saved by the Cybertronian elder Alpha Trion — who would be revealed in later iterations to be one of the original Thirteen Primes — and rebuilt with a powerful new body. Taking the name Optimus Prime, he defeated Megatron in what would become the first of many battles.

The cartoon was the first