Voltron: Legendary Defender was a surprise hit when it landed on Netflix last year. A modern reimagining of a 1980s cartoon (which itself was an edited and dubbed version of the Japanese series Beast King GoLion), it follows five Paladins who pilot giant, semi-sentient robot lions to battle the evil Galra Empire. In times of great need, the five lions can combine to form Voltron, Defender of the Universe – the only force powerful enough to defeat the Galran Emperor Zarkon's fearsome Robeasts.
Unlike the original, the remake is an entirely western-led production, developed by Dreamworks and boasting a creative team packed with animation luminaries from Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. Legendary Defender skews slightly older, with more complex storylines than the monster-of-the-week formula of old, while building long-form arcs that stretch across seasons. It's also more diverse, abandoning the all-male team of the '80s show, while honouring its Japanese roots by revamping Sven – the pilot of the Black Lion – as Shiro, the name of his counterpart in GoLion.
Following the cliffhanger ending of season one, which found the five Voltron Paladins scattered across the universe, WIRED speaks to Voltron: Legendary Defender executive producers Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery on the series' development, updating a classic for contemporary audiences, and where the show goes in the upcoming second season.
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WIRED: Here in the UK, the original 80's Voltron series wasn't well-known, but Legendary Defender's been huge globally. Were you surprised by that reception?
Lauren Montgomery: We were surprised but ultimately we were happy. When we set out to make it, we wanted to make a series that would stand on its own whether you were familiar with the old series or not. We always tried to sum it up in a way where it was essentially restarting from scratch – we tried to give it the best chance it could have of having audiences anywhere, even in places where the original was not well-known. It was really a surprise, and a good one, to us that it was received so well by so many people.
Joaquim Dos Santos: As we started seeing fan art come in and all the different countries it was coming from; that was really cool to see. We were really excited by that. And some of the fan art we were blown away by, like how professional it looked.
WIRED: Creatively, you seemed to 'get the band back together' from Korra and Avatar. How deliberate was that?
JDS: Extremely deliberate! We loved all the people that we worked with and had such a good work relationship with on Korra. There was really no need to change the formula too much. We did what we could to try to recreate that situation again.
LM: It was definitely intentional; we chose the people that we had that relationship with but it was also very fortunate, timing-wise, that Korra just happened to be coming to an end at the same time Dreamworks was looking for a team to make this Voltron show. It was really lucky for us because we were able to jump from one show to the next – some people got a nice little break after the crazy-intense job that Korra was, but we definitely knew the team we wanted and we went for them.
JDS: It really helps, especially when you're starting a new show or starting with new people, to have that adjustment period. We didn't have to worry about it because those relationships were already in place. It really helped that transition on a new show.
WIRED: With Korra, broadcasters didn't seem to know what to do with that show being a little bit more mature. How did making Voltron for Netflix affect the tones you can go for in animation?
JDS: I think that, looking back, had Korra just been started as Nickelodeon's first foray into online streaming content, it would have made a lot more sense and the show would have found the same audience and a bigger audience beyond that because they would have known where it was; it wouldn't have been jumping from time slot to time slot. And we, as content creators, wouldn't have been worrying about playing to this age group or that age group. We would have just been able to make the show, largely as you saw but without as much of the stress. I think had the strategy that was on Voltron been there for Korra, it would have made more sense at that time.
LM: Two parts to this answer. The first is that working for Netflix, the feeling is much more an embrace, whereas having a network showrunner is usually kind of a no-no – they want something episodic that you can watch no matter where you are in the series. [For us and other] people who worked on Avatar and Korra, who really enjoyed longer, structured stories, it was great working with Netfllix who allowed us to do that."
As far as Voltron is concerned, we definitely knew, going into it, that we didn't want to make it quite as mature as Korra. We wanted to be able to go in dark territory where we needed to but we definitely wanted to have a light-hearted tone to it and a lot of fun. That was something we were keeping in mind when we were starting the show up, to have these characters that have those fun comic moments but also really go to the darker areas if we needed to.
JDS: And I think Voltron kind of fits between Avatar and Korra, in terms of its tone. Like Avatar, because it's so fun in most parts, when that show turned dark those moments really seemed a lot darker. I think we've got the benefit of that as well in Voltron. When things get dark it's like, oh man it just got really serious! Sometimes these characters are super-deformed and going crazy, and then you've got people's arms being ripped off!
WIRED: How important was it for you that Legendary Defender not become slave to formula as the 1980s run did?
LM: We looked at the old show – there was that pattern of monster of the week, fight it, doesn't work, form Voltron, summon Blazing Sword. Rinse, repeat. It was that sort of situation. We didn't want to do that, we really wanted to explore not only how the Paladins defeat these monsters but doing it with Voltron, as the individual lions, episodes where they have to do it themselves. We wanted to make it that much more awesome when Voltron does get formed! Then you know something bad is going down – he only comes out where they really need him.
JDS: As we go on into the second season, what I think we're realising is we've given enough character and backstory to each of the Paladins that in a weird way they resonate more than the robot itself. Going back to the fan art that's coming in, it's usually not the Lions, it's the characters. People are really resonating with the Paladins themselves, which is exciting.
WIRED: On the characters, there's been a lot of fan praise for diversifying the team from the original, making Pidge, the Green Paladin female. Were you nervous about changing the line up?
LM: I wanted more female representation on the team for sure – everyone wanted it. Dreamworks wanted it. Nobody was really setting out to make a show with nothing but guys in it, or a show for no-one but boys. I kind of came into animation in a time when most action-adventure shows had the token girl and that was about it. We started taking more steps to change that, that was what we were doing. We were going to have Aurora [the Paladins' mentor], she was always going to be in the show, but we wanted a little more representation.
We knew we needed to change the line-up. Ultimately not coming out with it right away [Pidge is revealed to be a young woman mid-way through season one] and saving it for a reveal was more something we wanted to do because it could be a good moment in the show and to prove that point a little bit.
In action-adventure animation in general, it's really not that different to have a female character substituted in where you would normally put a male character. The dynamic between Pidge and the team really didn't change at all when they think she's a boy to when they know she's a girl. She's the same character who serves the same purpose.
JDS: Early on, we had a little bit of pain because there were a lot of people actually giving us grief, saying "oh, here comes another male-dominated show! A step backwards, and from the people that worked on Korra no less!" So there was a lot of tongue-biting when we were giving interviews early on.
WIRED: With the original Voltron, there was a second season known to fans as 'Vehicle Voltron', adapted from another anime, Armored Fleet Dairugger XV. Lion Voltron was always more popular but do you have any plans to touch on the Vehicle Voltron part of the legacy?
JDS: It's pretty focused on Lion Voltron. I knew about Vehicle Voltron and I would kind of watch it, but under protest. It was like, "where's the lion one, man? There's too many vehicles!". Plus, we haven't really had access to any of the vehicle stuff. All our pre-show materials were lion-based and that's really where our hearts were.
That's not to say that we completely rule it out altogether, there's just so much to do with the lore and the backstory of the Lions that right now there's just not a ton of story space to bring in a whole other team and whole other robot. Vehicle Voltron fans, we do love you too!
WIRED: Moving onto season two of Legendary Defender, where is the show going next?
LM: At the end of season one, we saw that the lions had all been scattered; a space warp was corrupted and they got thrown out at different places. We're going to a lot of interesting lands and meeting these new cool aliens, but also seeing how these characters deal on their own in uncertain situations. Ultimately, you know, they're going to have to get back together! They're going to have to form Voltron at some point in the show. But mostly we're kind of exploring that journey of these characters reuniting, but also evolving a little bit on their own.
JDS: The cool thing is seeing just how we really built out a robust universe of cool aliens and cool worlds. I've always been a Star Wars guy and Lauren leans more towards Star Trek but the one thing I really did take away as a kid from watching Trek with my parents was that it was cool there was a new world every episode, these cool new aliens that were introduced. I think we've kind of got that sort of thing going on a little bit. We go to some really cool places.
WIRED: How much are you using the original series as a guide? Will major events from back then – Sven died, Allura joined the team – influence Legendary Defender?
LM: We definitely have our nods to the original series, for sure, but we don't at all feel beholden to it. There are certain things we really enjoyed and appreciated that we will throw in, but there are places that we will swerve. It's like watching The Walking Dead while you read the comics – there are certain beats they hit and certain things they deviate from pretty drastically, and that's what we're doing.
JDS: That's probably the best analogy, the Walking Dead. It still feels like the same thing. If people who liked the original came in on episode five of our show, they would probably feel this was the Voltron they remember, and Character X would still be there, but certain things would zig left where they went right in the original. I think that's what makes the show cool. If you wanted a carbon copy, you might as well watch the original show!
Voltron: Legendary Defender season two premieres on Netflix on 20 January.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
