The Transformers franchise has one of the widest gulfs in quality of any major entertainment brand. A good Transformers movie or show sticks in the mind of its audience for decades, while a bad one brings the entire blockbuster medium down. The upcoming film, Rise of the Beasts, is set to revive the best part of The Transformers: The Movie. Unicron is finally returning to the big screen.
Rise of the Beasts is the seventh live-action feature in the Transformers franchise. The series under director Michael Bay was considered the worst mainstream blockbuster saga of the last few decades. However, after five entries, director Travis Knight introduced Bumblebee to take the brand in a different direction. With its direct sequel set to bring Beast Wars back, fans should be prepared for deep cuts in future sequels.
Where does Unicron Come From?
Unicron was introduced as the primary antagonist of the 1986 Transformers movie. Illustrator Floro Dery is credited with creating Unicron. Dery was charged with updating the work of original Japanese artist Shōhei Kohara for the 1984 Robots in Disguise series, but he personally designed all the characters introduced in the film. Dery also created the background scenery of Unicron's interior and exterior. His creation was influenced by the classic Marvel Comics character Galactus. This inspiration is more obvious in Unicron's first appearance, as later iterations would introduce elements of lore that feel extraneous to its original intent. That first appearance would also see Unicron voiced by legendary artist Orson Welles.
Narratively, Unicron's original backstory is very limited. He simply exists, like an immortal god that floats through space, eating whatever crosses his path. If The Transformers: The Movie poster is to be believed, he's "beyond good" and "beyond evil." Unicron is an eldritch being who represents the cold, unfeeling nature of the universe. The danger of Unicron is beyond that of a wannabe conqueror like Megatron. He needs to eat, his form is inscrutable, and the only thing that can sate his hunger is the countless living beings who occupy passing planets. Later comics would explain that Unicron is one-half of an extradimensional deity called "The One." Unicron represents chaos, while his brother Primus represents order. In an act of sacrifice, Primus willingly trapped himself and his brother in metallic planets. Unicron gradually gained the ability to move his new form. Eventually, he learned to transform into a humanoid structure. In response, Primus created the 13 original Transformers. In that continuity, Unicron is the beginning and end of the story.
What is Unicron Capable Of?
Unicron's size has always been a moving target. He is depicted as somewhere between a dozen miles and several hundred. What is known is that he's capable of eating planets. His planetoid body is packed with strange moving parts that grind matter to dust. People don't generally fight Unicron. He just floats through space until he reaches a suitable meal, consumes it whole, and continues his endless journey. Like a Lovecraftian horror, his motivations are either unintelligible or nonexistent. He needs sustenance and can eat planets, so he does. However, the physical threat posed by Unicron isn't the only problem.
Unicron is capable of mind control, he can create living beings from nothing, and he can survive seemingly any amount of damage. His powers are appropriate for a god of chaos. His goal follows suit. Unicron may devour planets one by one, but his eventual plan is to create a swirling void at the end of all things. He wants to consume all the infinite alternate realities beyond our perception and become a living apocalypse. To that end, the supercomputers that make up his brain can see all alternate dimensions simultaneously, travel through realities at will, and even see the future through complex predictions. He's a black hole with endless information and bad intentions. If he isn't stopped, Unicron intends to shut down extant life and delete matter as a concept.
Can Unicron be Defeated?
Of course, since this is the Transformers franchise, the way to defeat this all-consuming threat is whatever MacGuffin is at the center of the story. In the 1986 film, Unicron is defeated by Rodimus Prime, the new Prime who has earned the right to wield the Matrix of Leadership. With the Matrix, he simply destroys Unicron's body from within. Unicron's head survives, but it's consistently launched into space by someone holding the Matrix every time it rises. One of the few examples of Unicron being "permanently" slain in a continuity comes in Transformers: Energon. In that series, Primus creates an energon sun, which completely obliterates both siblings. It takes a lot of power to put Unicron down, but it can be done.
Unicron is one of the most interesting antagonists of the Transformers franchise. When he popped up in Rise of the Beasts, fans were overwhelmed with excitement. Fans will have to wait and see whether this planet-sized horror makes it to the big screen with appropriate gravitas.