So, uh... Prime's canceled after 13 more episodes.

[Onslaught Six]

I don't mean immediately. If it's set to air in late 2014, for example, they might not start production until early next year.

[Mako Crab]

I do kind of hope that whatever comes next is still set within the same universe as TFP. The constant reboots and alternate universes get annoying. I don't mind the idea of multiple realities, but it gets old seeing the same "Autobots arrive on Earth, make human friends, etc. etc." routine done over and over again. Move the story forward, please.

[Tigermegatron]

It's kinda a shame that Hasbro lets the live action TF movies dominate the entire TF francise. it's clear the TF4 movie in 2014 was the main reason the TFP/BH cartoon got canceled with only 13+3 movies episodes for season 3.

What makes no sense is why release so many new mold TFP/BH toys in 2013 if their is just 13/16 episodes to flesh out all those new characters personas.

My guess is season 3 will be action packed from start to finish. probably the predacons will replace the vehicons & Insecticons as the newer drones with little to none persona developed for each predacon character.

It'll be interesting to see which new mold predacons toys make it into season 3 of TFP/BH.

My guess is Airachnid won't make a return in season 3 because the Predacons toys have one or maybe two female characters that can fill the evil female villian role in TFP/BH season 3.

I'm speculating at this point Megatron gets killed early on or gets a different more powerful body. Either Hasbro is keeping the 2013 TFP/BH megatron toy a secret because it's awesome or there is no TFP/BH Megatron toy for 2013. It would be a shame if megatron died early on in the season 3 of TFP/BH because it'll be awkward to turn over the reigns of evil leadership this late on when the series is almost ready to wrap up & end. If they kill off megatron early on,this will be the biggest mistake Hasbro/writers have ever made. Because Megatron has been directing the flow of this story series like he's the guy dealing the cards at a poker table. Having shockwave or predaking take over & devise there plan would be lame & out of place for this last season wrap up/end.

I kinda wish Ultra Magnus,Thundertron,ironhide,rumble & the Terrorcons are in season 3. my guess is this was the early script plan but the predacons & shockwave's plot replaced them at the last minute.

[Sparky Prime]

it's clear the TF4 movie in 2014 was the main reason the TFP/BH cartoon got canceled with only 13+3 movies episodes for season 3.

Except Hasbro told us last year the main reason they were cutting down on the number of episodes for season 3 had to do with reducing money they spend for the cost of producing new episodes.

What makes no sense is why release so many new mold TFP/BH toys in 2013 if their is just 13/16 episodes to flesh out all those new characters personas.

It's possible not all of them will appear in the cartoon, and/or will not get fleshed out that much.

[Dominic]

That is what IDW does.

[Mako Crab]

On the bright side, maybe some fresh blood and new writers could, ya' know, inject some life into the good guys? Specifically Optimus.

[JediTricks]

I wonder if the soft sales on the toys and merch is part of what's taking Prime off the air after 13 more episodes.

*Breaks out the champagne and party hats*

Here's to waiting 18 months for a new TF cartoon that isn't Prime!

That said, I'm with you in finding this very weird. I was under the impression that, for all the fault guys like you and I find with it, the cartoon was performing pretty well. Maybe they figure paying to actually renew the series wouldn't be a worthwhile investment, and want to see if it can stand on just reruns? About all I know about cartoon production is that it sucks to be Greg Weisman, so I really can't offer any insight into what Hasbro's thinking on this one.

Gritty, hardcore, War for Cybertron cartoon? Ooh, maybe they'll do that Bayformers Animated Series I mentioned thinking would be cool a while back, to tie into Trans4mers coming out!

Heh heh, I wonder how Prowl feels about TFP.

"Performing well" on The Hub really is an uphill climb, as a new cable station they simply don't have as many viewers as they'd like to pay for new content.

TFP was really trying to be the gritty hardcore TF cartoon. I can't imagine them doing a show right now that wasn't Earth-based, they always aim to the broadest audience and that means robots among us, in disguise.

I remember there was an interview with one of the producers or writers near the end of the second season where they said that they had planned out the series to be 3 seasons and that they had a conclusion in mind for the 3rd season. They didn't rule out a 4th season at the time, but from what they said, really not surprised they're wrapping it up.

Seasons 1 and 2 were 26-episodes though, this is half.

I wouldn't be surprised if Beast Hunters were replaced with something akin to Beast Machines, or Energon, in relation to BW or Armada. In other words, "Beast Hunters" may end, but it could very well be replaced by a "new" show that has a different name, but functionally takes place in the same universe and continues the story of the preceeding series.

I also really don't like it when people say a show got "cancelled," sometimes, because that implies that every TV show in the history of ever is DESTINED to run for fucking ever, like it's the Simpsons or something. It's like, sometimes shows should just be finite.

The context of the article makes it clear that this is the end of the Transformers Prime cartoon story.

A show is "canceled" when its orders are terminated prematurely, that's what makes it different from a show that "ends" like Star Trek TNG, DS9, and VOY; the original Star Trek and ST:Enterprise were both canceled. Since seasons 1 and 2 both had 26 episodes a piece and this doesn't, and there's a large year and a half window without a series, it suggests this show was "canceled". But when there's no overarching story, why shouldn't a show run as long as audiences are there for it?

Anyways this should come as no surprise & it definately wasn't a shocker to me. As I saw news regarding this. Also,I base all my speculation off past events. Hasbro Has been canceling main & Sub TF toy line whenever a Newer TF movie year happens. Usually the main/sub TF toy line+ TF cartoon series gets canceled 8+months before the Newer TF movie arrive in theathres.

The main reason Hasbro is canceling the Beasthunters toy line+cartoon series is due to the 2014 June TF movie. Since the TF movie toys rake in the most cash. Hasbro needs 7+ months for the manufactoring plants over seas to create all these TF4 movie toys well in advance. Hasbro also wants to make sure those large retail store chains in America are not over loaded with beast hunters shelf/peg warmers in may/june 2014. Because in 2011 most USA retail stores refused to stock the DOTM toys on pegs/shelves due to TF2 movie toys still warming pegs/shelves in may/june 2011.

My guess is the Generations 2013 & 2014 toys won't get canceled as these toys sell quicky & 2014 is the 30th anniversary. I speculate that the newer TF cartoon series+toy line will have a classics/generations feel/story/designs to it.

This is a year before the new movie comes out, so it doesn't really hold well to that. And it doesn't take into account that TFP and DOTM ran at the same time, and that TFP was released before DOTM.

It also doesn't address how that would affect TFP's season 3 order going from 26 to 13 episodes, even if your first claim were accurate it wouldn't affect how many episodes were in this season as it'd still end before 2014 with 26 episodes.

And on top of that, the real problem with that thread (according to your own words at the time, TM) was not that the links weren't available but that you just refused point blank to do even the slightest anything to back up your crazy theory. You were the one making the claim but were trying to put the burden of proof onto us, which is bullshit. Ok, so you were right. But that still didn't make it our responsibility to back up your wild theories. THAT was the problem. If something is going to come out of your mouth you better well be able to back it up with proof before you start touting it as fact. Put your money where your mouth is or shut the hell up.

Not to mention that the rest of us go to those same "top 5" websites and absolutely NONE of us saw anything EVER even remotely close to what you were claiming at the time. Face it, you guessed and it was a lucky guess but don't you dare sit there and try to tell us "I had proof the whole time!" No you didn't. You had one of your own little fan theories that turned out to be true and that's all that happened. You never had any proof, we all know it, and none of us are falling for this reverse Nostrodamus act that you're trying to pull.

I'll first point out that you're all now officially running in the Special Olympics marathon on this issue, and you know what that means, win or lose.

I'll secondly point out that his theory is WRONG about cartoons being canned every time before a movie, I cited above how TFP and DOTM ran at the same time. Also, his theory does nothing to explain why Hasbro would cut the season order from 26 to 13 episodes, the movie wouldn't affect that at all. I don't give credence to such guessery.

I dunno. 13 weekly episodes, assuming there are no reruns once they start, is 3 months of content. Unless Hasbro has something that is more or less done, (and they likely would have announced it by now), there is unlikely to be any new show between now and the ramp up for the movie in early to mid-2014.

"Animated" ended before movie 3, and has only been followed up on in sourcebooks and convention sets since. "Prime" is likely to go the same way, unless Hasbro stays more consistent with their "Aligned" setting than we can reasonably expect them to. Outside of the IDW comics, which are published consistently alongside the Bay movies, things do not seem to meaningfully carry over from between one movie to the next.

If course, Hasbro could suprise us and adhere to (the already fragmented) "Aligned" setting. But, this is very unlikely.

Animated ended and ended short largely not due to the movie but due to Hasbro and Cartoon Network coming to issues over production, I thought (probably spurred by Hasbro secretly planning to buy Discovery Kids to turn it into The Hub).

I do kind of hope that whatever comes next is still set within the same universe as TFP. The constant reboots and alternate universes get annoying. I don't mind the idea of multiple realities, but it gets old seeing the same "Autobots arrive on Earth, make human friends, etc. etc." routine done over and over again. Move the story forward, please.

The article says that this is the end of the Transformers Prime story, I take that to mean the end of that universe, and thus a reboot of the product line as well. It makes sense from that perspective, retailers have been unhappy with the TFP line since day 1, that's what led to the death of First Edition.

I do hear ya on moving the story forward though, it gets stale revisiting these origins over and over. That's why I didn't see the latest Spider-Man movie, didn't need to watch another origin story onscreen.

n the bright side, maybe some fresh blood and new writers could, ya' know, inject some life into the good guys? Specifically Optimus. [/quote]NO SHIT! Throughout TFP our main hero has been a stick in the mud, a humorless curmudgeon miserably fighting this endless war - not as bad as the psychopathic live-action version, but still. I miss the odd moments of the G1 where Optimus would joke around and would do weird stuff or even come up short as a character because he wasn't trying to be perfect. They started to give Optimus a few little moments here and there, there was this odd reaction to something Raph said that showed some personality, it was humorless but it wasn't so dour, just kind of alien - didn't understand why Raph wanted to do something frivolous and just said no to it in a different way, something along those lines, I don't remember exactly, but it was personality for once. More personality for our heroes please, especially if they're gonna bother hiring the best actor to voice him!

[Sparky Prime]

Seasons 1 and 2 were 26-episodes though, this is half.

I know it's half of the other seasons. What's that got to do with them planning the show out to be 3 seasons and not ruling out the possibility of a 4th at the time of that interview I'd seen?

[JediTricks]

Seasons 1 and 2 were 26-episodes though, this is half.

I know it's half of the other seasons. What's that got to do with them planning the show out to be 3 seasons and not ruling out the possibility of a 4th at the time of that interview I'd seen?

I see what you mean, that wasn't the clearest quote post I've done. Sorry about that.

My point was that if they were planning 3 seasons, that halving this season cuts down on the time they'll have to tell that planned story, so it's like having the rug pulled out from under them. So they're not as able to wrap up what they had in mind as they would have had the series been open-ended or at least the season full-length.

[Sparky Prime]

Ah. I'm not sure halving the season will really have that big of an impact on the story. I mean, it seemed to me that so much of the first 2 seasons dragged out the storyline or had a lot of filler.