For all the years that make up my World of Warcraft tenure, I was fairly sure I had seen essentially every piece of marketing material that had been rendered. I adore the work of the cinematic teams of Blizzard; they have a track record that more than speaks for itself.
So I was somewhat surprised to discover that a piece of mostly-lost media existed, that served as a first ever cinematic reveal trailer for the lofty MMO – originating all the way back in 2001.
A casual 22 years later, and here I am feasting my eyes upon it for the first time – and found myself shocked by a figure from my childhood lending their presence to the footage:
This is the FIRST Cinematic Announcement Trailer for World of Warcraft! It was shown during ECTS in 2001! #worldofwarcraft
— Leyst (@LeystTv) August 30, 2023
Yes.. Picture quality is not the best but its from 2001.. Not sure if someone has a better quality 😄
Blizzard has always been soooo good at cinematics😍 pic.twitter.com/z2eL169kCg
That smooth voice that speaks as with the tone of freshly turned soil, sporting a rich and creamy timbre that is impossible to mistake – that my friends, is the extremely talented and beloved Peter Cullen.
You may know him as Optimus freaking Prime. At least, you should – he is the robotic dad of most 80s kids.
He is also known for providing the terrifying clicks and trills of the Predator from the 1987 film of the same name, Eeyore the depressed donkey from Winnie the Pooh and even KARR in Knight Rider.
Shocking to see the incredibly humble beginnings of the WoW hype cycle – but even more amazing to see that at one point, the legendary pipes of my favourite voice actor were actually contributing to the project. I had honestly never seen this piece of media, though I can see some elements of it persisted and appeared in the actual WoW launch trailer (wrecked windmill anyone?).
I just thought it was neat.
Have you ever seen this particular cinematic trailer? Did you realise it was Optimus Prime doing the voice over? Let us know in the comments or on social media.
Known throughout the interwebs simply as M0D3Rn, Ash is bad at video games. An old guard gamer who suffers from being generally opinionated, it comes as no surprise that he is both brutally loyal and yet, fiercely whimsical about all things electronic. On occasion will make a youtube video that actually gets views.
