He has been adapted in live-action, animated, and video game incarnations, having been voiced by actors including Frank Welker, Corey Burton, Hugo Weaving, and Brian Tyree Henry.

The narrative centers on the ongoing struggle between the Autobots and Decepticons, highlighting the transformation of key characters, Megatron's evolution, his alliance with Unicron, and his relentless pursuit of power and dominance.

The story unfolds across different series and episodes, depicting battles, alliances, and Megatron's relentless determination to achieve his goals, which ultimately lead to his eventual defeat and entombment.

Notably, his alternate mode of a jet is exactly the same as that of Cyclonus, and he incorporates several elements from his live-action movie design, such as both arms fusing together to form his fusion cannon.

In the third volume of the series, it was revealed that the U.S. Government had created the android Serpentor (or, as he is called here, Serpent O.R., standing for Organic Robot) using DNA from great historical war leaders and parts from Megatron.

Megatron based his command on the wreck of the Ark in the Yukon, where he keeps the fallen body of Ratchet as a trophy and the severed, but living, head of Shockwave as an advisor.

Using transwarp technology would allow a user to travel back in time and alter history—specifically, to destroy Optimus Prime as he lay in stasis within the Ark, thereby preventing the Autobots from winning The Great War.

Megatron's sudden development of a transformation-freezing virus, spark-extraction and Vehicon technology, and drones went without explanation in the animated series, with the large time gap between his return and the Maximals' left to serve as a grey area in which these innovations occurred.

Megatron's earliest fictional depiction in comics was in a two-part short story told in Dreamwave's Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye series of character profiles.

With a little help from Laserbeak and Buzzsaw (secretly sent by Divebomb to ensure Megatron's plan to change history succeeded), they destroy one of their pursuers, and the newly christened Darkside flees into Transwarp space, with the Axalon in pursuit—thus beginning the Beast Wars.

However, his legacy would continue to plague that universe, as his associate Cryotek would use the Transwarp technology Megatron contributed to their efforts to launch a campaign across time and space.

This version of Megatron (known as Gigatron in Japan) is a six-changer, powerful enough to transform into five additional modes besides his robot form—twin-headed dragon, bat-gargoyle creature, race car, spaceship and claw (GigaDragon, GigaBat, GigaFormula, GigaJet and GigaHand in Japanese).

The character of RiD Megatron made one appearance in Dreamwave comics 'Summer Special' issue before the company went under, sending his bickering lieutenants Scourge and Sky-Byte to steal a nuclear generator while he led the other Decepticons and Predacons to distract the Autobots.

Ten years later, Primus's plan to imprison Unicron's spark at the heart of the sun ultimately failed, leading the star to collapse, creating a black hole that threatened the existence of Cybertron, and the rest of the universe.

The Autobots attempt to fight back by having Mirage and Inferno Powerlinx while Landmine goes into brute mode, but they are overwhelmed when Insecticon Terrorcon hordes join in the attack.

The apparent explanation for the departure from his gun form is that director Michael Bay does not want to include any sort of size changing in the transformations, which the writers described as "cheating".

Megatron's body was discovered by Captain Archibald Witwicky and is transported to the Hoover Dam guarded by Sector 7, a secret government organization that studies Non-Biological Extraterrestrials (N.B.E.

After being weakened by human fighter jets, Megatron attempts to seize the AllSpark, but Sam Witwicky shoves it into his exposed spark chamber, killing him.

He then flies to the Nemesis, where he is greeted by Starscream and then reunites with the Fallen, telling of the AllSpark's demise before being told by his master that its knowledge (which has been passed on to Sam) is the key for providing Energon, which the Decepticons need to awaken their protoform armies.

Alpha Trion reveals that Sentinel betrayed the Primes and has been secretly working for the Quintessons, giving them regular supplies of Energon in exchange for letting him rule Cybertron while removing the miners' transformation cog to keep them subservient.

In his reckless desire to possess it, Megatron pursues it right into Earth's atmosphere and falls into the icy waters, resulting in his being frozen in stasis lock.

At the turn of the 20th century, a crew of men later take his body—dubbing him the "ice man"—and keep him in storage up until the present day, eventually relocating him to Hoover Dam in Nevada.

Due to the explosion that crippled the Autobots craft, Megatron's lifeless body crashed on Earth, contracting "space barnacles," while his disembodied head was found in rural Michigan by a young Isaac Sumdac.

After Unicron's defeat, Megatron found himself both on a mission to retrieve the Iacon relic weapons as well as keep his troops in line from various infighting among the ranks which resulted in a few casualties and several betrayals.

Eventually fighting for the restoration of Cybertron and cyberforming of Earth, which was foiled by Optimus, but Megatron had his revenge and used the Nemesis to destroy the Autobot base before setting up the new fortress of Darkmount.

The series' finale movie, Transformers Prime Beast Hunters: Predacons Rising, though "killed", Megatron was awakened by Unicron, who took possession of his body and reformatted him with new improvements upon his chassis.

He eventually began using his fame as a gladiator to take a political stance, crying for the lower members of Cybertronian society to rise up and claim what was rightfully theirs.

After mortally wounding Sentinel and humbling Starscream into continued subservience, Megatron succeeded in defeating Omega Supreme as well as infecting Cybertron with Dark Energon.

Megatron and his forces set out in search of it but ran afoul of a crew of Star Seeker pirates led by Thundertron, who engaged the Decepticons in a heated battle before withdrawing.

Despite warnings from Starscream and his partner Jetfire that Dark Energon destroys all those who come into contact with it, Megatron obtains it and immerses himself in it, and uses it to power the Decepticon war effort.