Michael Bay is bringing Peter Cullen, the original voice of Optimus Prime in the Transformers cartoon series, back for the live-action version. Cullen talks about it here. Revelation: Until recently, he did not really understand how popular Prime was!

And what about the reaction from fans?

I don’t remember any overwhelming reaction from anybody. But then I wasn’t really in any way aware of what the kids were thinking. I didn’t have any thermometer to tell me how popular the show was. I do remember that the movie was not a very big financial success.

Though you must’ve gotten fan letters …

No, that’s one thing about that series. I never saw a fan letter. I don’t know who got them. That’s why I was so surprised so many years later to find out that he was so popular. I didn’t know.

No. Way.

Related: You can submit a line to be spoken by Cullen (!) in a contest over at the Transformers website. I am such a shill but I don’t care. If you had cried in the movie theater watching an animated Optimus Prime die like ten minutes into the first Transformers movie you would totally, totally understand.

Via Cinematical.