'Optimus Prime: Awakening' Director Details Saying “Goodbye” to Peter Cullen

• Collider's Steve Weintraub talks with Joshua Wassung for Optimus Prime: Awakening.
• After an early screening of Transformers: The Movie, Wassung discussed the making of his short film.
• Wassung discusses honoring the franchise with stylized animation, working with Peter Cullen, and paying homage while blending fresh storytelling with Easter eggs for the future.

As part of the 40th anniversary celebration of Transformers: The Movie, Collider was honored to partner with Hasbro and Fathom Entertainment to invite LA fans to an advanced screening of the re-release, plus a sneak peek screening of the after-credits short, Optimus Prime: Awakening. The short film is helmed by filmmaker Joshua Wassung (Predator: Killer of Killers), who joined us on stage afterwards for a discussion about how Awakening came to be, and to honor the late and legendary Peter Cullen, who provided the voice of Optimus Prime for four decades.

In the short, Cullen and Frank Welker, the voice of Megatron/Soundwave, join forces once again for a 12-minute love letter to Transformers. The story, which Wassung reveals contains Easter eggs and clues to the franchise’s future, builds on the acclaimed storytelling and visuals of the 1986 film.

If you missed our early screening and Q&A, you can watch the full conversation in the video above, with a transcript provided below. Speaking with our own Steve Weintraub, Wassung reflects on how he went from his very first job on Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith to co-directing Predator: Killer of Killers with Dan Trachtenberg, eventually landing him an Autobot-sized opportunity with Hasbro. He details how their team honors the original series, from the pilot episode, and how they set themselves apart through stylized animation and storytelling, plus how a Star Trek: Voyager episode inspired one of his favorite shots. Wassung also shares his experience working with Cullen in the recording booth and more.

Josh Wassung's First Job Was Working on 'Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith'

"They recruited me up to go to Lucasfilm, so I flew across the country and skipped graduation."

Image via Lucasfilm

COLLIDER: I want to jump backwards, if you don't mind. I was looking in the always-accurate IMDb, and I think your first gig was working on [Star Wars] Episode III.

JOSH WASSUNG: That's correct.

How did you get that job, and what did you do on it?

WASSUNG: I worked in the pre-vis department. I was at Skywalker Ranch. I was hired straight out of school. I did an interview at SIGGRAPH in 2002, and they recruited me up to go to Lucasfilm, so I flew across the country and skipped graduation.

Were you a Star Wars fan?

WASSUNG: I mean, of course.

What was it like getting a gig there where you're seeing what's going to happen in the final installment?

WASSUNG: It was a dream come true. I actually told all of my classmates that I was going to work on Star Wars one day, and then I did. So, it was a pretty wild overall experience. And then I met all my friends, and we ended up starting a company together, which is The Third Floor, and we did this animation.

So basically it all worked out.

WASSUNG: It worked out.

How 'Predator: Killer of Killers' Led to Transformers

Wassung co-directed last year's Predator installment with Dan Trachtenberg.

Image via Hulu

We just watched your short film. I think this is the first time an audience has seen it.

WASSUNG: It is.

So I'm curious, you were sitting there watching it. What were you waiting to hear from people? What was it like for you? I'm sure this is the largest crowd that's seen it.

WASSUNG: Yes. I was just excited for everyone to finally see it. The team worked so hard. I think maybe my favorite moment is when, finally, Bumblebee makes it all the way there, and he finally fires at Megatron, and just that rapid fire of Optimus turning the tide and chopping his arm off. I was excited for anyone to experience that moment.

Let's jump backwards. How did this thing actually happen for you? For people that don't realize, you directed Predator: Killer of Killers.

WASSUNG: Yes.

That was also kind of good.

WASSUNG: [Laughs] I like to think so.

Yeah, it was kind of good. When I say kind of good, I mean it was fucking awesome. How did you get from there, with Predator, to this?

WASSUNG: Well, my reps introduced me to a lot of cool folks after that movie came out, and I got to meet Zev Foreman and Cyrus [Warner] from Hasbro, and they brought up this project they were really excited about. It was kind of their baby that they were brewing up over at Hasbro.

I got really excited myself because I was born in 1980. As a child of the ‘80s, you grew up with Transformers. It's formidable. It's part of who I am as a kid growing up, but also when I wanted to be a filmmaker one day, and so I was thrilled at the chance to get to work with these guys on that.

A lot of people are not going to meet with Hasbro for a project, so what was it actually like? Was it a general meeting? You go in and all of a sudden they're telling you about this?

WASSUNG: Yeah. We were on a Zoom, and they were like, “Hey, there's this really cool project. Would you be interested?” That's kind of how it happened. I don't know how else to explain it. I mean, it helps that Predator was pretty cool.

So you get attached to this, and you’re like, “Oh, this is cool.” Talk a little bit about the genesis of the project. They have this idea; maybe they have the script. How far along was it when they were talking to you about it, and then how did it possibly change once you got the keys to the Ferrari? Or I should say to the Optimus?

WASSUNG: [Laughs] I would say the script that Ryan [Parrott] had written was already super cool. I think it was really just asking us how quickly for myself to direct, but also my studio to do the animation. So we had to kind of analyze what kind of resources we could pull together, and how quickly we could turn this around. Because we knew the clock was ticking to get this ready for the anniversary.

I think that was December, so just thinking about ideas of how to achieve it and started talking with Hasbro about what kind of approach we want? How do we want to honor the original style? How do we want to bring it into something more modern? How to blend those things. And then before we know it, January, we started production.

How 'Optimus Prime: Awakening' Honors the Original Transformers Movie

He also breaks down his "three-act" approach to crafting fight sequences.

Image by Trent Barboza

How did you decide on the look of the animation? Because you obviously [pay] homage. There's stuff from various Transformers in this, and you also have your own style.

WASSUNG: It was really important for us to honor the original. We worked really hard to bring a little bit of a handcrafted styling. It was all made by hand. There's line work, there's color. We were really going back to the original art. We looked at original matte paintings from the pilot episode of the series, but also paintings from the movie, and we really analyzed, zooming way in and analyzing the brushstrokes, analyzing the colors.

We have an amazing art director, Ed, and the previs team all were kind of working together. Shout out to the previs team, who’s here in the house. They all worked together, and we really just broke down how was this movie made with a 2D hand-drawn technique? And how can we emulate that hand-drawn feeling, but also pulling from those original colors and kind of just dialing it up to make it a bit more vibrant, and just embrace that style?

You get to direct an Optimus-Megatron fight. What was it scripted like, and then how did you sort of bring that to life with the way you wanted it to stage? Like where they're going to fight and how is it going to go.

WASSUNG: Well, working on fight sequences is always a blast. I've worked on many over my career. I kind of like to think of them as a three-act structure unto themselves, so you really want to think of where the characters are at the start, and what kind of emotions transpire. That's why we wanted to bring in Bumblebee and get Bumblebee really involved in this fight; he was kind of the emotional stakes of the fight. And then building those ticking clocks, it's a puzzle piece. You really kind of piece that all together until the puzzle starts to fit together.

And then, team previs, they do a ton of work to kind of elaborate on what exactly those gags are. How is he going to swing that flail? How is he going to swing that axe? And just tracking geography. I mean, it's a lot of hard work, but honestly, it's a blast. You’re playing with toys, but you're doing it on the computer.

"You get chills."

I just want to point out you were paid to work on an Optimus Prime project, and you were paid to work with Peter Cullen and Frank [Welker]. I have to talk about Peter. I think Peter has impacted everybody in this theater, myself especially, and everyone in here.

WASSUNG: Absolutely. As he should.

Also, I just want to say I was fortunate to interview Peter before, and he was the nicest man. Talk a little bit about getting to collaborate with him. Obviously, you had no idea that it was going to be the last thing that he did with Optimus.

WASSUNG: True. Getting to meet Peter was a wild, full-circle experience, of course, because, just like everybody here, growing up hearing his voice over and over and over again, and then seeing him, also, in the movies, everything, for my entire life, really. And then getting to meet him, immediately he's a jokester, and he's just immediately cracking jokes and telling stories.

But what was amazing was he's lived a full life. He was 85 when I met him, and he looked and sounded like an 85-year-old. And then he sat in that sound booth, and he was like, “Sound check, sound check,” and then he just turns it on, and it's like you get chills. He sounds like a totally different human. It just turns on. It comes out of him, even at 85. It was very inspiring.

What is it actually like directing him when he knows the character better than any of us? He's been playing the character for 40 years.

WASSUNG: Intimidating.

Can you share any story of him doing a line reading and you're like, “Maybe this?”

WASSUNG: Honestly, it's intimidating. I grew up as a kid listening to his voice, and so how do you tell somebody who was the original guy? And so, he would just do tons of takes — his own. He would just, “Alright, here's the line. Cool. I'm going to give you a whole bunch.” And he would do, like, 17 of them.

I could tell he wasn't so sure. You know, “Who's this relatively young guy, this young whippersnapper,” if you will. And on the comm, I was like, “Hey, Peter, I actually really liked take four out of 17.” And he goes, “That's the one I liked.” And so I was like, “Yes!” [Laughs] So I feel like that's when we just became back and forth, and he would ask me questions. And he would always say, “Make sure you get what you need.”

Then we got to talk, from there, about making sure that we pushed the emotion. We really wanted to kind of dig deep into Optimus’s concern. He has all that introspective and thoughts about his life and what it all means, and I really wanted to dig into it. So, it was great.

'Optimus Prime: Awakening' Is an "Open-Ended Question"

"We don't know all the answers."

Image via Trent Barboza

One of the things I think is cool about the short is that it leaves the audience to interpret stuff that's going on in it. Talk a little bit about that aspect, that you could, as an audience member, think one thing and another audience member might think something else?

WASSUNG: That's all part of what Hasbro wanted to do. Also, what I wanted to do is we wanted to give fans lots of opportunity to explore, to watch it again, to see, “Oh, are there any nuggets in there? Are there any clues in there?” But we really wanted to leave that open.

It's like an open-ended question at the end. There's a journey that’s set out, and we don't know all the answers, but you get to kind of dig into, like, what does that mean? To really kind of find that balance of giving people a fun ride, but also giving people an opportunity to imagine what comes next, that was really the main goal for the piece.

Before getting this job, what was your relationship with Transformers? Were you a fan, casual viewer, or a collector?

WASSUNG: I was a lifelong fan. I mean, the Transformer toys were my prized possessions as a kid.

You need to be specific. What's the one that, if you could go back in time…?

WASSUNG: Grimlock. I had a Grimlock. It's funny because, no spoilers here, but my parents told me that Santa Claus gave me Grimlock. I was very young, maybe four, and I was like, “No, it was you guys. You gave me Grimlock.” So, I wasn't buying the whole Santa Claus thing, but I was obsessed with Grimlock.

How did you decide on the title?

WASSUNG: I believe that came from Zev, from Hasbro. He had the idea. We were sitting around in a room and kicking around ideas, and he just said, “What about Awakening?” And immediately that just felt right to me. It struck a chord in me. And then it took a while longer before we decided on the full title being Optimus Prime: Awakening, but there was just something about that, you know? This project really is Zev’s baby. It’s something that is a passion of his, and it just was from inside of him.

When did you actually finish this?

WASSUNG: A couple weeks ago. [Laughs] It was recent. It was very recent.

This 'Star Trek: Voyager' Episode Inspired One of the Short’s Shots

"I had to get it right."

Image via Paramount Television

What was the last shot or thing that you were working on? I've spoken to a lot of directors, and with VFX, they talk about how there's always one shot that they keep going back to that they’re not 100% on. What was it on this?

WASSUNG: Oh man, there were so many. There was a shot when, without spoilers, there's a transporting very quickly from one place to another that we did over and over again. There are stars that whoosh by, and we kept on adding elements, redoing, retweaking it, retweaking, and then we added some smoke. It was a whole bunch of small elements that finally clicked.

I was actually inspired by an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, which is like a way callback. There was an episode when the ship gets thrown, like, 11 light-years. I can't believe I remember this, but anyways, I remember in one shot, the ship got kind of thrown 11 light-years across a galaxy, and that was my inspiration for that shot, and I had to get it right.

Are you also a Star Trek fan?

WASSUNG: To a degree. I mean, I've seen a lot of Star Trek.

This is not to do with Transformers, but Next Generation, DS9, Voyager — which is the top one or two?

WASSUNG: Next Generation.

There's no right answer here. Just curious.

Optimus Prime Looks Back on "This Whole Ongoing Battle"

"What does it really mean?"

Image via Paramount Pictures

At the center of the story is, of course, Optimus Prime. What did you want to explore about the character that audiences perhaps haven't seen before?

WASSUNG: Most importantly, we wanted to show Optimus really coming to grips with really analyzing his life and what has been this whole ongoing battle, and what does it really mean? It’s kind of brought into question: Was it all for nothing? But he digs deep, and he digs his heels in, and he's like, “I will not abandon my friends.” That was something that was core to his character, and we really wanted to push him to the limit and really make him face: What does it mean to stand up for your friends, but also for your family, but also, thinking about the greater good of the whole for everyone?

The short is very much connected to the legacy, the ‘86 film, while also pushing the story forward. How did you approach finding that balance between honoring what fans love and creating something new?

WASSUNG: Like I said before, it was really making sure that we embrace the source material, embrace the original. That means everything. That means how they drew the robots, how they moved, how the lines were drawn, how the colors were chosen. It's literally all these little details that add up to creating a feeling that kind of brings you back but also gets you excited to see what that modern take could be. So, it was just very important that we drew from all those original elements and put that into a new light.

Did you get to have Frank and Peter record at the same time?

WASSUNG: Unfortunately, they were not on the same day. I think one day was Frank, the next day was Peter. But what was interesting is not one, but both of them would impersonate the other. I'm serious. They would impersonate the other and pretend to be having conversations with the other one. They've done it so many times. They would have full conversations. I'm not kidding you.

I'm assuming you recorded this.

WASSUNG: I mean, yeah. It was in the recording booth.

I would love to hear that.

WASSUNG: Yeah, it's good stuff. They're having fun. It's almost like they're telling jokes, but then giving their own joke answers. It was really fun. And Peter's version with Frank was incredible.

The real question, of course, is did you have anyone record a voicemail, like your answering machine message?

WASSUNG: No, I was too intimidated.

I don't want to say you failed, but you failed. I'm joking around. What do you think fans would be surprised to learn about making a short like this?

WASSUNG: I touched on it a little bit already, but I guess I would say the surprising thing about making a short like this is how much work — and I do mean the hundreds of hours of work — goes into making something look imperfect. Because if you guys pause this one day when it comes out on whatever format, if you pause it, you look at the lines around the Transformers, they are not perfect; they are sketchy. And that, combined with every little detail, tons of work went into making sure it didn't feel too clean, not too perfect, because we wanted to give that handcrafted feel.

I really think that Spider-Verse opened the door to a lot of studios and executives being like, “Oh, that's cool, not making it absolutely perfect.”

WASSUNG: I totally agree. I'm a big believer that animation's a medium, and that you can use it to do any kind of storytelling. It's really a form of moving art, and that's something that I feel very passionate about.

I completely agree.

'Optimus Prime: Awakening' Is Almost "Designed as a Goodbye"

The short marks the legendary Peter Cullen's final project as Optimus Prime.

Sara De Boer/startraksphoto.com

Knowing that this is Peter's final performance as Optimus, has the short taken on a different meaning for you personally since you made it?

WASSUNG: Yeah. It was very heavy to hear of his passing, and immediately I go to — without going into spoilers — him walking into the light. There’s such an emotional moment that we put into the performance. By the way, shout out to Jarret, the voice of Bumblebee. He did such a great job. He brought such emotion in this emotional goodbye.

It just felt like immediately, it's almost like this short was designed as a goodbye, but we didn't know at the time, you know? So there was definitely a sense of almost like the future is foretold. There's something very, very moving about it. I'm just so grateful that he was able to participate.

Any Easter eggs that fans should look out for?

WASSUNG: I'm not going to say what they are, but there are clues, maybe some very brief shots if you look closely. There are clues that may or may not pertain to the future. So, I'm not gonna say what they are, but there are a few little nuggets in there.

Are they one-frame things, or are they like you can notice it if you watch it again?

WASSUNG: I would say you could notice it if you watch it again.

On the 17th in movie theaters, Fathom. Check your local listings. What do you hope longtime fans or people just discovering Transformers take away from this?

WASSUNG: My hope would be that people will take away that Transformers can be both nostalgic but also fresh, and that it can bring a sense of hope and adventure, and that it can have emotion. That's my hope for the takeaway.

The Transformers: The Movie 40th Anniversary is now playing in theaters. You can purchase tickets here.

• 

  Norman Alden

  Hot Rod / Rodimus Prime (voice)

• Jack Angel

  Optimus Prime / Ironhide (voice)

• Michael Bell

  Soundwave / Megatron / Rumble / Frenzy / Wheelie (voice)

• Gregg Berger

  Galvatron (voice)