Tracking · Updated 2026-09-15
The new
post-credits
chapter
The 40th Anniversary re-release ends with Optimus Prime: Awakening, a twelve-minute CG short made for the theatrical event, carrying Peter Cullen’s last original performance as Optimus Prime and Frank Welker opposite him. Hasbro named it and credited it on 1 September 2026. What happens in it is still not public, so this page keeps the confirmed and the unconfirmed strictly apart.
What we know about the post-credits scene
Confirmed: it is called Optimus Prime: Awakening, it runs twelve minutes, it is CG rather than cel, Josh Wassung directed it and Ryan Parrott wrote it, The Third Floor animated it and Bobby Krlic scored it. Peter Cullen is Optimus Prime, in what Hasbro says is his last original performance in the role, and Frank Welker is Megatron and Soundwave. It plays after the credits.
Still not confirmed: what happens in it, and whether every screening carries it or only some. Hasbro and Fathom have published different answers to that second one and neither has corrected the other.
Verified
What Hasbro has actually said
| Confirmed | Detail |
|---|---|
| It has a name, and a runtime | Optimus Prime: Awakening, twelve minutes, CG animated rather than cel. Hasbro named it on 1 September 2026, five weeks after announcing that something would be there at all. |
| Peter Cullen is in it | Hasbro says it carries his last original performance as Optimus Prime. He recorded it before he died on 26 August 2026, and Hasbro describes the short as a love letter to the Transformers community and to him. |
| So is Frank Welker | As Megatron and as Soundwave. The two of them have been playing that pairing against each other since 1984. |
| The full crew is known | Directed by Josh Wassung, written by Ryan Parrott, animation and imagery by The Third Floor, music by Bobby Krlic, edited by Sean Rourke. Zev Foreman and Cyrus Warner produce and Harrison Stutz co-produces. Read off the billing block on the poster; the press release names only the two voices. |
| It was revealed at Comic-Con, not screened there | Hasbro and Fathom used San Diego Comic-Con on 24 July 2026 to announce that the chapter exists. Fathom now bills the theatrical run as the world premiere, so the con audience was told about it rather than shown it. |
| A handful of people have now seen it | Hasbro and Collider ran a press screening in California in the days before 9 September. Four attendees saw the film and the short under embargo, and two of them posted afterwards on r/transformers. |
| It plays after the credits | Which is the entire point. Do not walk out. The 1986 film runs 84 minutes and the credits are not long. |
| The official tagline | "Every Epic Saga Has a Secret. As This Journey Ends, a New One Begins." That is Hasbro's wording, verbatim, from the announcement. |
Not verified
What nobody has confirmed
Most of what sat here through August has since been answered by Hasbro directly, and the answers are in the table above. Two things are still genuinely open, and one of them is a straight contradiction between the company making the short and the company selling the tickets.
| Open question | Where it stands |
|---|---|
| What actually happens in it | Still unknown. The four people who have seen it are under embargo and have kept to it. Hasbro has released a teaser clip carrying two lines of Optimus Prime dialogue and nothing of the plot. |
| Whether every screening gets it | The two companies selling this do not agree. Hasbro says the short plays after "select anniversary screenings"; Fathom's release page says "every screening also includes the world premiere". Neither has reconciled the other. Confirm against your own cinema listing. |
| Whether it is the coda on the disc | The 40th Anniversary 4K set lists an extra reading "Animated Coda (TBD) (2026)". The obvious thought is that the coda and the short are the same twelve minutes. Nobody at Shout, Hasbro or Fathom has said so, and twelve minutes is a lot of runtime to file under coda. |
| Whether it sets up something else | The tagline implies it, which is what taglines are for. No project has been announced off the back of it. |
Our position
We are not going to invent a synopsis to rank for this, and we are not going to launder con-floor hearsay into a report. The four people who have seen it are keeping their embargo and we are not going to break it for them. This page gets rewritten again on 17 September 2026, with what is actually on screen.
The question nobody else is answering
Is the new scene on the disc?
This is the most-asked question in the Blu-ray.com and Reddit threads about the anniversary, and there is no page anywhere that addresses it directly. So, plainly:
Not according to anything announced. The 40th Anniversary Edition, streeting 13 October 2026 from Shout! Factory, is a DVD, and its listed extras are the legacy package that has travelled with this film for years: the Nelson Shin, Flint Dille and Susan Blu commentary, the ’Til All Are One documentary, the archival Death of Optimus Prime, Cast and Characters and Transformers Q&A featurettes, animated storyboards, trailers and TV spots. The new chapter is not on that list.
Hasbro has consistently described the chapter as created for the theatrical event. Read literally, the cinema is the only announced way to see it. That could change, and plenty of Fathom exclusives have later turned up on a release, but nothing has been announced and we will not pretend otherwise.
Full disc breakdown, including the extras list that two major fan outlets got wrong, is on the 40th Anniversary disc page.
Context
Why a post-credits scene, and why now
The framing tells you a lot. Hasbro is calling the whole campaign “The Apology Tour”, and the full event title is “The Transformers: The Movie: The Apology Tour 40th Anniversary Screenings”. Fathom’s copy invites you “back to the scene of the crime” and offers “one very overdue ‘our bad’”.
That is a company selling grief it deliberately caused. In 1986 Hasbro killed Optimus Prime to clear the 1984 and 1985 toy lines for the 1986 range, was surprised by the volume of letters from children, and brought him back on television within six months. Forty years later it is putting the film back in cinemas and appending a brand-new scene to it.
Which is why the speculation about Optimus is reasonable even though it is unsourced. A forty-years-late apology tour that ends on a secret is not subtle about what the secret is likely to concern. But reasonable and confirmed are different things, and this page only deals in the second.
Questions
Everything people ask
The original 1986 film has no post-credits scene. The 40th Anniversary theatrical re-release, running from 17 September 2026, adds Optimus Prime: Awakening, a twelve-minute CG short made for the event, which plays after the credits roll.
A twelve-minute CG animated short attached to the 40th Anniversary screenings. It is directed by Josh Wassung and written by Ryan Parrott, with animation and imagery by The Third Floor, a score by Bobby Krlic and editing by Sean Rourke. Peter Cullen voices Optimus Prime and Frank Welker voices Megatron and Soundwave.
Nobody outside Hasbro, Fathom and the four people at the September press screening knows, and those four are under embargo. Hasbro has put out a teaser clip with two lines of Optimus Prime dialogue in it. Any article telling you the plot is speculating. We update this page the day it screens publicly.
Hasbro says it carries his last original performance in the role. He recorded it before his death on 26 August 2026, and Hasbro says returning meant a great deal to him and that he felt it was a homecoming.
Not confirmed either way. The 40th Anniversary 4K set lists an extra called "Animated Coda (TBD) (2026)" and it would be reasonable to guess that is the short, but no company has said so. The DVD, streeting 13 October 2026 from Shout! Factory, lists the legacy extras package and nothing new. For now the cinema is the only announced way to see it.
Yes. That is the whole reason the chapter exists and it is the single most useful thing to know before you go.
No. Hasbro and Fathom used San Diego Comic-Con on 24 July 2026 to reveal that the chapter exists. Fathom bills the theatrical run as the world premiere, so the con audience was told about it rather than shown it.
Keep reading
Related
Tickets, dates and 4DX
The real date window, all eight markets, and the popcorn buckets.
Physical mediaThe 40th Anniversary disc
Date, price, specs, and the extras two outlets got wrong.
ReferenceWho dies in the movie
The complete roster, and why Hasbro did it.
ReferenceThe ending, explained
The Matrix, Rodimus Prime and Unicron’s head.
The hubThe Transformers: The Movie (1986)
The complete record of the film.