Whether you love or hate Michael Bay’s take on the Transformers movie, the series has undoubtedly brought us some good moments between all that mindless chaos and destruction. Sadly, a lot of the narrative is just bland (and that’s an euphemism), the character development is practically non-existent and Bay has proven that you can only do so much with great CGI and that people want more than big robots fighting after two or three movies. Continuity errors are likewise a thing with Bay’s series and we are going to talk about one such continuity error today, and that is Galvatron’s fate after Age of Extinction. So, if you want to know what happened to Galvatron, keep reading!
It is actually now known what happened to Galvatron between Age of Extinction and The Last Knight; we just know that at one point, Galvatron disappeared and Megatron reappeared, with Quintessa being the possible reason for that shift (besides Bay’s lazy writing).
In 1984, Hasbro and Takara Tomy released a toy line that included robots that could transform into vehicles. They were Japanese toys rebranded for the Western market, based on the Diaclone and Microman toy lines. The toy line was named Transformers and it would soon enough become a pillar of modern pop-culture, with a series of animated shows, comic books, video games and – subsequently – live-action movies that created one of the most important franchises in the world.
The difference between Megatron and Galvatron
Megatron is a fictional robot from the Transformers franchise, a supervillain robot and the leader of the evil Decepticons; he has been an integral part of the whole franchise and its most famous antagonist, despite not being the strongest one.
The original Megatron was the leader and warlord of the Decepticons. He serves as the nemesis of the Autobot leader Optimus Prime. In most incarnations, after meeting his demise, usually at Optimus’ hands, Megatron would be resurrected as Galvatron.
Megatron is usually depicted as having risen up from being a lowly worker to become a champion in gladiatorial fights. As a gladiator, he took the name of the legendary “Megatronus”—one of the original Thirteen Primes who betrayed his comrades and became the first Decepticon—as his own, and would similarly inspire a later villainous character. He became an activist, trying to reform Cybertron’s corrupt governing body and end its unfair caste system.
During his early days, he mentored the young Orion Pax, and together they championed the downtrodden and preached that freedom of self-determination was the right of all sentient beings. Orion Pax would later become Optimus Prime and utilize Megatron’s teachings against him when he became corrupt.
Megatron could transform into three types of guns: a Walther P38 handgun, a particle-beam weapon, and a telescopic laser cannon. He has the ability to transform between his robot shape and various weapons or vehicles, but these “alternate-modes”, his origins and even personality, can vary depending on which “generation” he is depicted in.
Galvatron in the live-action series
In Dark of the Moon, the third movie in the live-action franchise, Optimus Prime kills Megatron. This was because Optimus wanted to end the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons, so he declined Megatron’s truce offer and decapitated his biggest rival. And it seemed that Megatron was done for.
And then Age of Extinction came along, and we found out that the humans – brilliant as we are – saved Megatron’s head and reconstructed him in the form of Galvatron. Ironically, Galvatron was initially supposed to look like Optimus Prime, but ended up looking like Megatron in the end.
During an Autobot raid, Galvatron was brought to life and was ordered to fight Optimus, but he soon took over his body and became completely autonomous, surprising his creators. His battle with Optimus was interrupted by Lockdown, but he still wanted to conquer Earth, despite not having a large army behind him.
His plan ultimately failed and at the end of the fourth movie, Galvatron retreated, but vowed to return. He did return in The Last Knight, but not as Galvatron. Galvatron disappeared. The one who actually returned was – surprise, surprise – Megatron!
How? Keep reading to find out.
How did Megatron reappear?
That question doesn’t have a precise answer simply because Michael Bay never bothered to add just one short scene explaining Megatron’s return. What we know is that Megatron was revived as Galvatron in Age of Extinction, and in The Last Knight, he was Megatron once more, this time with a new armour. Although we don’t have an exact reason we can assume what happened during the interval between Age of Extinction and The Last Knight.
We know that Galvatron was a man-made robot and a man-made name. There is absolutely no doubt that Megatron would have hated both this new body and the new name. Having survived the events of Age of Extinction, Galvatron probably managed to get off Earth. In outer space, he met Quintessa, the powerful Transformer sorceress, with who he formed an alliance.
Quintessa is a powerful Transformer and she would certainly have the power to rid Galvatron of his body and forge a new one, thereby returning Megatron to the narrative. This would explain how Galvatron just disappeared between the movies and how Megatron miraculously reappeared in The Last Knight.
But, whether or not this happened – we have no clue! It is a possible and highly probable theory, but whether or not it’s true, we just don’t know. Why? Because Michael Bay never bothered to explain that. He just put Megatron out there once more as if nothing had happened in the previous movie.
So, how did Megatron really reappear? Theoretically, it was thanks to Qunitessa, but in reality, he reappeared because of Michael Bay’s lazy writing and his couldn’t-care-less-attitude about the story and the narrative continuity. And that solves the mystery of Galvatron’s miraculous disappearance and Megatron’s miraculous reappearance.
And that’s it for today. We hope you had fun reading this and that we helped solve this dilemma for you. See you next time and don’t forget to follow us!
