When it comes to the world of voice acting, some people just become synonymous with the greatest characters in animated history; the late Kevin Conroy is Batman, Charles Martinet is Mario, Mel Blanc is the Looney Tunes, and Matt Mercer is just about everybody these days.
Peter Cullen, the longtime voice of Transformers‘ Optimus Prime, is one such player subject to this inseparability; indeed, we’ll be equal parts surprised and disappointed if we find out that he doesn’t regularly go by Optimus Pete.
The voice actor first loaned his talents to the leader of the Autobots in 1984, the year the original Transformers animated series began to air, and has since been relatively unshakable from the role. But, his work in the sci-fi space goes far beyond that iconic red-and-blue transport truck; in fact, without Cullen, our spines wouldn’t have shivered in quite the same way back in 1987, the year that the world first met the Predator.
That hair-raising click was masterminded by Optimus Prime himself, and Cullen was happy to divulge the origin story of the Predator’s voice in a recent interview with Collider; as it turns out, it began with a horseshoe crab.
“Years ago on the beach in Massachusetts, at low tide, there was an upside-down horseshoe crab, and it was a hot day, and the bubbles were coming out of it, and its legs are like this [gestures], and all those bubbles are breaking, and they’re making that little [mimics Predator click]. So, I figured, “That’s stuck in my brain.””
Suffice to say that we have quite a bit to thank Cullen for, and even if he was one of the most important ingredients in the genesis of the Yautja race, we reckon we’ll always be most thankful for that gravely, hard-hitting drone that’s barked orders at the Autobots for decades now.
And if you’re itching to hear it yet again, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is now playing in theaters.