Hasbro and Fathom Entertainment have announced Optimus Prime: Awakening, a new 12-minute animated short film that will accompany 40th-anniversary 4K screenings of The Transformers: The Movie in cinemas from 17 to 22 September. The release is especially poignant as it features what is being described as the final original voice performance by Peter Cullen, the actor synonymous with Optimus Prime, who died in late August aged 80.

The short, produced by animation studio The Third Floor, also brings back Frank Welker reprising Megatron and Soundwave, and is billed as a "love letter" to the Transformers community and to Cullen himself. Welker paid tribute to his late co-star in a statement, while Hasbro and Fathom said the project meant a great deal to Cullen, who reportedly called his return to the role a "homecoming." Tickets for the rerelease, dubbed an "Apology Tour" in reference to the 1986 film's controversial killing off of Optimus Prime, are now on sale via Fathom's website.