Transformers: War For Cybertron has disappointed some fans with a controversial casting decision, namely hiring non-union talent. The War For Cybertron trilogy kicked off last month with the first entry, Siege, which chronicled the final day of the war between the Autobots and Decepticons on their homeworld Cybertron, before the action moves primarily to Earth. The show is dark and intense, featuring some slick animation and high production values for what is, essentially, a toy commercial.
But fans might notice something a little off about the series: it features a slate of relatively unknown voice actors. Franchise stalwarts like Peter Cullen and Frank Welker who are nowhere to be found, replaced by non-union voice talent. Cullen, for his part, took Netflix's decision to use non-union actors personally, taking the opportunity in March 2020 to denounce it on a panel Q&A at GalaxyCon Richmond 2020.
Cullen has voiced Optimus Prime on and off since 1984, so he has plenty of reason to feel slighted by being excluded from such a high profile Transformers project. But more than that, Cullen warns that Netflix hiring only cheap, non-union voice talent sets a dangerous precedent for the industry, which is heavily regulated by the Screen Actors Guild to ensure fair pay and working conditions. Cullen is arguing for something more than just a lost paycheck - he's looking out for his fellow actors.
The Transformers franchise hasn't always had the same voice cast. While Cullen and Welker headlined the Generation 1 cartoon, an entirely new cast took over for Beast Wars in the '90s, led by Gary Chalk as Optimus Primal and David Kaye as the smooth, ruthless Megatron; Kaye would actually become the rare actor to play both Optimus Prime and Megatron, as he'd voice the heroic Autobot leader in the much-beloved 2007 series Transformers Animated. A few other voice casts would emerge over the years, but crucially they were always unionized talent, thus avoiding any legitimate criticisms on that front, and more often than not they actually included either Cullen or Welker in their usual roles.
The issue for Cullen is nothing to do with ability and this is not to say the cast of War For Cybertron is devoid of talent. Linsay Rousseau and Jason Marnocha do solid work as Elita-1 and Megatron, respectively, but other voices, like Optimus Prime and Starscream, are clearly just impersonations of better actors. It seems unlikely this is a misstep Netflix has any interest in correcting, as the sequel to Siege, Earthrise, is already in production. And the inclusion of quality voice actors doesn't always equal quality - the Prime Wars Trilogy featured Cullen, Welker, and other A-list voice talents like Mark Hamill and Ron Perlman but was still universally reviled by the fandom.
But Cullen's point of contention could potentially mean we've heard the last of his Optimus and Welker's Megatron, which would be a little bit like firing Mel Blanc - were he still with us - from voicing Bugs Bunny. There are plenty of other Transformers projects in the works, and hopefully, Hasbro realizes that the Transformers: War For Cybertron casting decision was an error and that the franchise shouldn't move on from its classic actors just yet.