Netflix has already proven itself to know what it takes to bring classic animated properties to new audiences, as it did with the Mr. Peabody & Sherman series and the Inspector Gadget update. Everything we’d seen so far had us believing a similarly honorable approach was being taken with the upcoming Voltron: Legendary Defender, and the robo-tastic and silly official trailer definitely has us jazzed to see how the entire series will play out. Experience the action-packed excitement below.
Right? Right? Granted, it’s not the most amazingly complex thing we’ve ever seen, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t look awesome anyway. The animation is lovely in its 2D form, allowing for a gorgeous contrast when the more well-rendered 3D effects come into it. The best of both worlds, really. As well, it’s got some humor going for it. Not bafflingly weird humor that shows up in anime often enough, but a fairly standard jokey tone that lasted throughout the trailer and thankfully remained restrained.
Voltron: Legendary Defender is a reboot of the original 1984 series, which was itself a repurposed cobbling of footage from the Japanese series Beast King GoLion, and it will basically follow the same general plotline of the original. Five unassuming young people come together and discover some flying robot lions that can turn into the mega-hero Voltron, and the central objective is keeping the galaxy free from dangerous villains. Not that it’ll be easy, as was hinted at in the trailer, which gave just enough action to whet the binge-appetite without giving it all away.
Don’t be surprised if you recognized some of those voices, too, because Voltron: Legendary Defender has a top-notch cast. Red Lion pilot Keith is played by The Walking Dead star Steven Yeun. Blue Lion’s Lance is voiced by Adventure Time Finn’s Jeremy Shada. Green Lion pilot Pidge is Bex Taylor-Klaus of MTV’s Scream. Spectacular Spider-Man’s Josh Keaton plays Black Lion Shiro. And Yellow Lion Hunk is voiced by Deadbeat’s Tyler Labine. Then there’s popular video game actress Kimberly Brooks as the Kingdom of Arus’ Princess Allura, Flight of the Conchords’ Rhys Darby as her advisor Coran, the anime-friendly Neil Kaplan as King Zarkon and the prolific voice actress and A Different World star Cree Summer as the dreaded Witch Haggar.
I’m going to spend the next month jealous that I can’t have this as my entrance on a daily basis.
Thankfully, there is just less than one month to go until we can feast on all the robot battles we can handle when Voltron: Legendary Defender makes its family friendly premiere over on Netflix on Friday, June 10, at 12:00 a.m. PT. To see everything else premiering in the coming months, check out our summer TV schedule.
