Galvatron Transformers: Who He Is and Where He Appears

Galvatron is a Decepticon commander who is Megatron in a rebuilt body. He first appears in The Transformers: The Movie (1986), an animated spin-off where Leonard Nimoy voices him (billed fourth). He returns in Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014), the fourth main film in release order, where Frank Welker voices him (billed seventh). Welker is also credited in the 1986 film for Megatron, Soundwave, Rumble, Frenzy and Wheelie, so one performer stands on both sides of the Megatron to Galvatron change.

Is Galvatron Megatron? Yes, in both films. In 1986 the planet sized Transformer Unicron rebuilds the broken Megatron as the more powerful Galvatron. In 2014 KSI melts down fallen Transformers to make drone soldiers, and one of them is built from Megatron's remains. In the live action saga, Hugo Weaving voices Megatron through Transformers (2007), Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon, and Galvatron arrives only after that run ends.

What vehicle is Galvatron? Neither film's plot gives him a vehicle form, since he is described only as a rebuilt Megatron. If you searched for a Galvatron Transformers 4 appearance, Age of Extinction is the fourth main film, and it is where he shows up in live action.

Galvatron's relationships are defined by who made him and who he cannot stand to answer to. Galvatron vs Megatron is a trick question, since they are the same character in two bodies, but the films treat the new body as a new rank: Unicron's version is more powerful, and KSI's version refuses the people who built it.

The closest tie is to Megatron, whose remains he is made from in both films. Unicron, voiced by Orson Welles in 1986, is his maker and his master in that story. Optimus Prime is the rival who defeated Megatron just before the Galvatron rebuild in 1986, and in 2014 Optimus is the Autobot leader whose final fight with Attinger and Lockdown plays out as Galvatron flees. In the 1986 film Hot Rod is the young Autobot who later becomes Rodimus Prime, and he is the one who activates the Matrix after Galvatron seizes it and Unicron swallows him.

In Age of Extinction the human links matter more. Joshua Joyce (Stanley Tucci) builds the drone that becomes Galvatron and loses control of it, and Harold Attinger (Kelsey Grammer) is the government backer who wanted those drones. Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) is the inventor who discovers the KSI program in the first place.

In my opinion, Galvatron is at his best when the films make his borrowed power turn on his makers. These are the scenes I would rewatch first, and the ranking is opinion, not fact.

First, the 1986 moment where he takes the Matrix of Leadership and Unicron swallows him anyway. Perhaps it is the cleanest bit of storytelling in the film, since the servant sent to fetch the prize ends up inside the master he was sent to feed. Second, the KSI breakout in Age of Extinction. Joyce builds drone soldiers to be controlled, and the Megatron derived one slips that control and takes over the others, which gives the 2014 film its most dangerous turn before Hong Kong. Third, the exit. It could be argued that a villain who flees and swears to return gives Optimus a better ending, since Prime then sends the Creators a message that he is coming for them.

Is Galvatron more powerful than Optimus Prime? Within these two films, the answer is never settled. Optimus beats Megatron before the 1986 rebuild, and in 2014 it is Lockdown and Attinger who fall to him while Galvatron escapes, so the question stays open. One casting note: Nimoy also voices Sentinel Prime in Dark of the Moon (2011), so a single voice covers two of the franchise's biggest power plays.