I bet you didn’t even know there was a live-action Voltron film that just finished filming, did you? If you didn’t know that, I’m going to bet you also didn’t know that the film stars Henry Cavill, Rita Ora, Sterling K. Brown, Alba Baptista, and Daniel Quinn-Toye. The film, directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, has entered post-production. Details about the plot and the specifics have been pretty closely guarded. Thurber wants fans to know that good things come to those who wait, and he made this film because he’s passionate about the subject material.
“You know, I loved Voltron since I was a boy, and I wanted to make this movie since I was eight years old,” Thurber said. “To finally bring Voltron to life is beyond thrilling. We’ve reimagined Voltron for the live-action world but we’re going to stay true to the heart and the spirit of Voltron and those iconic elements that you love — that I love. It’s taken us forty years to get here, but I promise you it will be worth the wait.”
If you’re not familiar with Voltron, let me give you the lore. The story is about five galaxy space explorers from Planet Earth, trained by a Galaxy Alliance known as Galaxy Garrison. The five space explorers were Lance, Hunk, Sven, Pidge, and team leader Keith. After escaping the evil clutches of King Zarkon and the evil witch Haggar, who rule Planet Doom and seek to conquer the galaxy, the five crash land on Planet Arus. Arus is home to the legendary robot Voltron, the defender of the galaxy and protector of Planet Arus.
While the space explorers are more than willing to pilot Voltron to save themselves and Arus from Planet Doom and Zarkon, the robot is built of five individual lions, each requiring a special key to operate. Can the team find the keys and assemble Voltron? Will Planet Doom destroy Arus before they can? Are the keys even able to be found? And what do Haggar and Voltron have in common?
While Voltron was originally supposed to release in theaters, Amazon looks to be releasing it on Prime just like they did the Road House remake. If you’re unfamiliar with Thurber’s work, he directed the film Red Notice with Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds. He’s probably most famous for Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story and We’re the Millers. He’s not my favorite director, but everything I’ve seen him say about this film tells me he understands the source material, knows people want to see a live-action version of their Voltron, known as Voltron: Defender of the Universe, as opposed to Voltron: Legendary Defender, which dropped on Netflix.
The Netflix show was cool, but it wasn’t the Voltron we grew up watching. That show was everywhere. People watched the original first five episodes of the show, which they compiled into a home video release called Voltron: Defender of the Universe. People have super fond memories of watching that film as kids, whether it was with family or by yourself. If you were super lucky, you might have even had parents cool enough to buy you the lion toys so you could assemble Voltron yourself. I had the red, yellow, and green lions. My cousin had the black and blue lions.
I’m really looking forward to this film. I have no idea when it’s actually going to drop, but this is something I wanted to put on your radar because I would want it on mine, if I didn’t know. Something tells me this is the type of film that’s just going to be shadow dropped one day with no notice, and that’s a shame. It really would have been cool to see these lions assemble on a big screen, maybe even an IMAX or 3D, but I’m just happy to be getting a serious Voltron film based on the cartoon I grew up with and not some deviation. The fact that Henry Cavill is starring only makes it that much better. I’ll definitely let you know more as I know more, but for now, just know that it’s done filming and in post-production.
Thurber did say he was doing a “reimagining” of the franchise, so who knows if that’s code for “I’ve completely messed up the only thing people have been asking for from Voltron.” I’m choosing to believe he’s going to make something that people want to see. There’s not a lot of faith going around the Voltron community, and I do want to make people aware that he said this, so don’t blame me if this guy completely takes your childhood and puts a blender to it. I just want a competent Voltron similar to the one I saw as a kid in the 80s.
