For those that remember the 80's, this was a time when anime starting to become really popular in the United States, and one of the most popular one was Voltron. Voltron: Defender of the Universe was released to the States at the right time, as it featured a story about giant robot lions that can merge together into a humanoid robot. At the time, the concept of a changing robot was popular with Transformers and Go Bots, and Voltron was turned into a toy line as well. Naturally, anything from the eighties has to be rebooted, and Netflix as well as Dreamworks Animation are tackling it with Voltron: Legendary Defender, and this is the release date and news.
The show is headed by Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery, who are just off their last series with Avatar: The Legend of Korra. The teaser video that you can see below which was shown off at the Wondercon convention, and it has their trademark style that can be seen on their other works like Justice League.
According to Nerdist, the cast for Voltron: Legendary Defender includes Jeremy Shada (Adventure Time) as Lance, Bex Taylor-Klaus (Arrow) as Pidge, Josh Keaton (Green Lantern: The Animated Series) as Shiro, Taylor Labine (Tucker and Dale vs. Evil) as Hunk, Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead) as Keith, Kimberly Brooks (Mass Effect) as Princess Allura, and Rhys Darby (Flight of the Conchords) as Coran.
Showrunners Montgomery and Dos Santos had heard that Dreamworks had purchased the rights to Volton, and they jumped on to make this series, which appears to be exactly like the premise of the 1984 cartoon. The original cartoon was actually two different series, the first involved the adaptation of Beast King GoLion, while the second season was a completely unrelated series known as Armored Fleet Dairugger XV. This second season features a Voltron that was made of several spaceships with an Air Team, Land Team, and Sea Team, and could also form into a giant robot. This is actually one of several anime series that were merged together to form a supposed "complete story", and since the dialogue is redubbed in English, it gives opportunity for a lot of changes to be made.
Since the 1980s, there have been several attempts to reinvigorate the Voltron franchise in every decade. There was Voltron: The Third Dimension, a computer animated series in 1998, as well as an attempt around 2005 to create a live action movie. Nicktoons then revived it in 2011, and now it is Dreamworks turn to give it a modern-day-makeover.
Voltron: Legendary Defender will appear on Netflix on June 10, 2016 with 13 episodes. Those that remember it from the eighties will most certainly binge-watch it, and a whole new generation will become acquainted with it as well.
