Development of the franchise began in November 2016 with the announcement of an animated web series by Machinima, based on the upcoming toyline.

Honor was represented by Arcee, Ultra Magnus, and Hound; Order by Megatron, Star Saber, and Shockwave; and Chaos by Thunderwing, Optimus Primal, and an Unknown Evil (Deathsaurus).

[9][10] In November 2017, a fan noticed that a tiny print found on the vehicle mode of Jazz featured scribbles that, when translated from the Cybertronian alphabet, read out "MAGA", which is an abbreviation for "Make America Great Again", the slogan of both former President Ronald Reagan and then-President Donald Trump.

In the aftermath of the Titans' conflict that concluded with Optimus Prime's death, Megatron and the rest of the Transformers must stand together in order to stop Megatronus from wiping out their species forever.

It was also confirmed that Ron Perlman would voice Optimus Primal, after the character was voted by fans to become the next Prime, while Gregg Berger also reprised his role as Grimlock in addition to Volcanicus, the combined robot form of the five Dinobots.

[18][19] IDW had previously published crossover events based on Combiner Wars[20] and Titans Return.