Editing The Transformers: The Movie (section)

===Writing===
The [[The Transformers (TV series)|''Transformers'']] television series began broadcasting in 1984 to promote the [[Transformers (toy line)|Transformers toys]] by [[Hasbro]]. ''The Transformers: The Movie'' was conceived as a commercial tie-in to promote the 1986 line of toys.<ref name="Nostalgia"/> The TV series featured no deaths, and the writers assigned familial identities to characters for children to associate with. However, Hasbro ordered that the film kill off several existing characters to refresh the cast.<ref name="Massacre">{{Cite web|last=Lambie|first=Ryan|date=August 8, 2019|title=Transformers: The Movie and The Great Toy Massacre of 1986|url=https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/transformers-the-movie-and-the-great-toy-massacre-of-1986/|access-date=April 18, 2021|website=[[Den of Geek]]|language=en-US|archive-date=September 4, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220904212639/https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/transformers-the-movie-and-the-great-toy-massacre-of-1986/|url-status=live}}</ref>

The director, [[Nelson Shin]], recalled: "[Hasbro] created the story using characters that could best be merchandised for the film. Only with that consideration could I have freedom to change the storyline."<ref name="Dormehl"/> The screenwriter, [[Ron Friedman (producer)|Ron Friedman]], who had written for the TV series, advised against killing the Autobot leader, [[Optimus Prime]]. He said in 2013: "To remove Optimus Prime, to physically remove Daddy from the family, that wasn't going to work. I told Hasbro and their lieutenants they would have to bring him back but they said no and had 'great things planned'. In other words, they were going to create new, more expensive toys."<ref name="Massacre"/>

According to the screenwriters, Hasbro underestimated the extent to which Prime's death would shock the young audience. The story consultant Flint Dille said: "We didn't know that he was an icon. It was a toy show. We just thought we were killing off the old product line to replace it with new products. [...] Kids were crying in the theaters. We heard about people leaving the movie. We were getting a lot of nasty notes about it. There was some kid who locked himself in his bedroom for two weeks."<ref>{{Cite web|date=2019-08-08|title=Transformers: The Movie and The Great Toy Massacre of 1986|url=https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/transformers-the-movie-and-the-great-toy-massacre-of-1986/|access-date=2020-06-07|website=[[Den of Geek]]|language=en-US|archive-date=September 4, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220904212639/https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/transformers-the-movie-and-the-great-toy-massacre-of-1986/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="dille-on-youtube2">{{Cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVHM6ExSb2U| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211117/MVHM6ExSb2U| archive-date=2021-11-17 | url-status=live|title=The Death of Optimus Prime as told by Susan Blu, Flint Dille, Nelson Shin, Tom Griffin and Joe Bacal|date=2013-03-23|language=en-US|access-date=2020-10-25|via=[[YouTube]]}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Optimus Prime was subsequently revived in the TV series.<ref name="Massacre"/>

A scene in which Ultra Magnus is drawn and quartered was scripted and storyboarded, but replaced with a scene of him being shot.<ref name="Massacre"/> Another unproduced scene would have killed "basically the entire '84 product line" in a charge against the Decepticons.<ref name="Massacre"/>