eter Cullen is forever the voice of Optimus Prime, and in recent interviews with producers of the upcoming Transformers: Rise of The Beasts it has been made very clear that as long as Cullen wants to provide the voice for the leader of the Autobots, then they are more than happy to have him. Now the legendary 80 year old has joined forces with the meditation app Calm to narrate a brand new Sleep Story called History of the Transformers, which explains how the intergalactic conflict between the Autobots and the Decepticons started, and is told, via Cullen, in the soothing yet powerful voice of Optimus Prime.
"I am pleased to be bringing Transformers to Calm Kids through an imaginative and adventurous bedtime story," Cullen announced in a Calm.com statement. "I hope through this story that families and kids can get the sleep they need to conquer their days."
Cullen has provided the instantly recognizable voice of Optimus Prime since the 1984 cartoon series and the subsequent animated movie in 1986. Over two decades later, Cullen reprised the role for Michael Bay’s live-action movie series and has so far returned for all the sequels, and the spin-off movie Bumblebee. He will next appear in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts when it is released next year as a direct sequel to the smash hit Bumblebee, and a prequel to the original Michael Bay franchise, which adapts the Beast Wars story to the big screen.
Peter Cullen Has Made The Role of Opimus Prime His Over Almost 40 Years, And Isn’t Done Yet
As well as returning for the live-action movies, Cullen has also played Prime in numerous other animated versions of the popular franchise. He was joined by fellow veteran Frank Welker, whose amazing list of credits range from providing sounds for Cujo, through Gremlins and Slimer in The Real Ghostbusters, to being the voice of Megatron in Transformers: The Movie, when the pair reunited to play their respective roles in the 2012 animation Transformers Prime. Cullen was back again for the 2015 follow-up series, Transformers: Robots in Disguise.
As well as his film and TV appearances, the actor has also featured in video games such as Transformers: War for Cybertron, Fall of Cybertron and Transformers Devastation. Transformers most recently put out Prime Wars between 2016-2018 and the Netflix series War for Cybertron from 2019 to 2021, but these were two of the first Transformers projects to not feature Cullen, who was replaced by Honest Trailers’ Jon Bailey for Prime Wars and Jake Foushee for War for Cybertron.
However, as already pointed out, Cullen is the voice of Optimus Prime as far as any future movies are concerned, and that includes Rise of the Beasts, which finished production in October last year but had its release recently pushed back as part of Paramount’s recent schedule shakeup. The film will also star Ron Perlman who will be providing his instantly recognizable tones to Optimus Primal in the movie, which will arrive in cinemas on December 22nd, 2023.