A reassembled 1980s hero
Netflix rides a wave of nostalgia in rebuilding a popular robot franchise
Like scads of kids in the mid-’80s, producer Joaquim Dos Santos was drawn to his local toy store by “Voltron: Defender of the Universe,” imploring his favorite uncle to buy him the giant title robot.
“He thought he was going to buy me this little Transformer toy when we went to the store, but it was this $100 diecast Voltron, and I could see him just cringing taking it up to the register.”
Lauren Montgomery is a bit too young to remember everything about the anime series, but she knew that she liked it and is excited to be collaborating as executive producer with Dos Santos on a new version for Netflix premiering June 10 dubbed “Voltron: Legendary Defender.”
“There was no YouTube, so it was hard to go back to as I grew up,” Montgomery says. “Once it came out on DVD, and now you can even watch it on [anime website] Crunchyroll, I re-familiarized myself with it.”
Though a hit, the original lion-based “Voltron,” created by Peter Keefe and John Teichmann in 1984, ran for only one year. The premise: a quintet of young pilots command five robot lions that can be combined to form Voltron — a giant, sword-wielding robot who defends the universe from the constant threat of alien invasion.
(Another volume of the show used 15 vehicles to form Voltron, but the lion version was unquestionably more popular.)
Dos Santos and Montgomery decided to tackle the reboot while they were winding down the popular Nickelodeon series “The Legend of Korra.” Netflix’s serialized storytelling appealed to them and, after a critical appraisal of the earlier show revealed a lack of character development, they are forming “Voltron” from scratch.
“On a personality level, all of them kind of blended together,” Montgomery says.
“We knew there was room to grow from the original series in terms of fleshing out the world and that was a really exciting prospect for us,” Dos Santos says.
Anticipation for the series was high at this year’s Wondercon, where a panel featuring the showrunners and voice actors — who include Rhys Darby (”Flight of the Conchords”) and Tyler Labine (”Reaper”) — and a sneak peek earned a standing ovation.
“I’d say ‘Voltron’ has managed to hang around in our collective subconscious and resonate with so many for a reason,” Dos Santos says. “It’s a really unique blend of genres — sci-fi, fantasy, Arthurian lore — that has this simple but powerful core message of ‘teamwork.’ ”
“Korra” explored similar themes and was also lauded for a diversity of characters. The duo plans to bring those sensibilities to “Voltron.”
“We’re always trying to have more gender and race and ethnic representation,” Montgomery says.
With stronger, inclusive storytelling and a built-in fan-following, they hope to capture the magic of the original “Voltron.” That means a new generation of viewers will likely be dragging their relatives to the toy store.
“We’re hoping to make a show that you like,” Montgomery says, “and then want to buy toys from because you like it.”