He’s been Geralt of Rivia. He’s been Superman. He’s even been Sherlock Holmes. But now we have heard Henry Cavill will also play the lead in Voltron.
Amazon’s MGM is working on a live-action movie version of Voltron, and it’s set to star Cavill according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Most people’s reaction to Voltron is “so, like Transformers, right?” But that’s not quite it.
While Voltron features robots, the titular one of Voltron is more than 100 metres tall, and is made up of five smaller lion robots that can be piloted by humans. Optimus Prime? Pah, he doesn’t even clear 10 metres in height. A small fry.
Little else is known about Amazon’s take on Voltron so far, other than it also stars the young actor Daniel Quinn-Toye. And the film is being directed and co-written by Rawson Marshall Thurber. His previous directorial credits include Netflix mega-hit Red Notice — the most-watched Netflix film of all time — Skyscraper and Central Intelligence.
He’s adept at combining comedy and action. Just like Henry Cavill, then, in films such as Argylle and The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.
We heard back in August that Amazon MGM had snagged the rights to this long-awaited live-action adaptation of Voltron. But the franchise has already had a pretty successful revival at another streamer, Netflix.
Voltron: Legendary Defender came to Netflix in 2016, and crammed in an impressive eight seasons between then and 2018. It wasn’t cancelled after that. The show had simply run its course.
If you want to check that show out, do so soon as it will leave Netflix in December due to an expiration of streaming rights. But perhaps it could end up on Amazon’s Prime Video or another of its streaming services before too long.
Voltron was first broadcast on September 10 1984, and is based on Japan’s Beast King GoLion, which debuted in 1981. This means that, yep, it predates Transformers as a TV show. Just: Transformers: Generation 1 was first shown on September 17 1984. What a fortnight that was for robot-based antics.