I’ve reported a few times on the ongoing development of the Energon Universe animated series, based on the successful comic series from Robert Kirkman’s Skybound comics and it seems that, surprisingly, we’ve had our first glimpse at it already or at least you saw it if you went to see Transformer: The Movie on the big screen this past week.
So, Transformers: The Movie turned 40 this year and was given a big-screen re-release; this also featured a 12-minute short film at the end called Optimus Prime: Awakening, which was a look at the war Prime had fought for centuries across several universes – it was a lovely short but also was bittersweet as it was the last time the late Peter Cullen would play Optimus Prime after doing so for more than four decades.
During the short, we saw Prime fight the Decepticons Soundwave and Starscream on an alien world – he fought someone else, but I won’t spoil that – and at one point he stared off into space and we saw this beautiful scene:
In the comics, it looks like this:
Confirmed: Skybound and Hasbro developing Energon Universe animated series
The structure that Prime is looking at is almost certainly the Sacred Ring, from the Void Rivals comic in the Energon Universe.
In Void Rivals, we learn that the warring planets Agoria and Zertonia were almost destroyed many years before when their nearby star collapsed, creating a black hole. To survive, the planets united to create The Sacred Ring (also known as the Ring of Zerta), which was a massive structure that contained the black hole.
And Optimus Prime is standing in front of it in the above stills from Optimus Prime: Awakening.
ROM: The Space Knight officially joins Skybound’s Energon Universe
Now, I’m big enough to admit that I watched this on Wednesday night on the big screen and never even realised what I was watching, but Reddit user Dracofrostdragon spotted it and was straight on to the Energon Universe subreddit, so well played that man (or woman).
So now that we have had our first official look into the animated Energon Universe, all we can do now is sit back and wait for whatever news/updates/trailers come next for the full series.
I loved this short and I am even more excited to see what the Energon Animated Universe will look like, so if you’re a fan, stay here for updates, guys.
Thoughts? I know you have them and I wanna hear ’em all.
Tidbit:
Skybound’s boss Robert Kirkman confirmed at SDCC in July that the Energon Universe animated series was still happening but he couldn’t say very much about it yet:
Kirkman confirms the Energon Universe show is still in development pic.twitter.com/59xcl2v25Q
— Best Of Skybound Transformers (@TopOfSkyboundTF) August 10, 2026
Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
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