Transformers still big on small screen

(E! Online)
Updated: 2007-06-27 16:00

Los Angeles - Optimus Prime is in his, er, its prime.

Already set to appear in the big-budget Transformers movie, the good robot and his Autobot friends have lined up their latest TV series.

Transformers Animated will debut next year on the Cartoon Network, the network and the toy giant Hasbro jointly announced Monday.

In addition to the Autobots, the dastardly Decepticons are also on board.

Transformers Animated will be the ninth series to feature the Hasbro-hatched characters since 1984. The most recent edition, Transformers: Cybertron, debuted on Cartoon Network in 2005.

The initial plan for the new show calls for 26 half-hour animated episodes, plus a 90-minute special. The order will add to the more than 350 episodes that already comprise the Transformers' TV library.

Although the news comes just a week before the scheduled opening of Paramount and DreamWorks' Transformers, the new TV show is not a tie-in to the live-action film. (Indeed, Cartoon Network is affiliated with Paramount and DreamWorks studio rival, Warner Bros.)

"The lore carries on, and everything is linked," Hasbro exec Samantha Lomow said Monday of the Transformers universe. "But this is independent of the movie."

Because no Transformers event would be complete without new Transformers collectibles, Hasbro promises there will be goodies (toys, games, etc.) launched in conjunction with Transformers Animated.

Transformers, the movie, is set to blast its way into theaters in sneak-peak late-night showings on July 2. Michael Bay directs; Shia LaBeouf stars; the Autobots and Decepticons, as always, make Earth their battleground.

When asked if the TV series announcement was made Monday in order to lock up Optimus Prime, et al, before the forthcoming movie boosts their asking prices, Lomow laughed: "Yeah, that'd be funny," she said.

Never underestimate a shape-shifter called Optimus Prime.