The director of Red Notice, Rawson Marshall Thurber is to direct and co-write a live action version of Voltron.
Voltron: Defender of the Universe is a series about 5 pilots of the robot lions that aired in 1984. The robots have the ability to combine and form the super robot called Voltron. The Voltron team is there to protect the planet Arus from the Warlord King Zarkon.
The show is originally based on the Japanese series Beast King GoLion, by Toei Animation. The World Events Productions edited and re-wrote the original Japanese series because it had elements of death, abuse and torture. It was not kid safe to say the least. Yes, even in the 80’s Japanese anime doesn’t always target a young audience. The American version is called Voltron: Defender of the Universe. World Events Productions kept characters alive, removed the torture scenes and sexual enslavement.
Red Notice Director Rawson Marshall Thurber To Direct Live-Action Voltron
Image: Universal Pictures
Regardless of what some people might think of heavily editing the original series, I think it was for the better. Voltron became one of the most popular animated series of all time. IGN ranked Voltron as 76th out of the Top 100 Animated Series in 2019.
Now that Rawson Marshall Thurber is with the project, Warner Bros. Pictures, Universal Pictures, Amazon Prime Video and other studios are trying to get the feature. It’s interesting that Netflix is not in that list bidding for the movie considering they released an exclusive animated series called Voltron: Legendary Defender. The animated series ran for 8 seasons from 2016 up until 2018. DreamWorks Animation produced the series itself.
This is not the first time that Voltron has a chance to have a live action film. In 2005 the live action version of Voltron was in early development with Mark Gordon (Grey’s Anatomy) as the producer. Enzo Marra already had a script for the project. Pharrell Williams was even to produce and to compose the musical score. There were a lot of events that moved the project forward and back. In 2016, Universal Pictures and Dreamworks Animation got David Hayter (X-Men, Watchmen) to write the script for the live-action film. However, the studios had no other developments or progress in the production for the project after that.
Red Notice Director Rawson Marshall Thurber To Direct Live-Action Voltron
Image: Netflix
Todd Lieberman and David Hoberman will produce the new Voltron film. Among their notable works are Beauty and the Beast (2017) and Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers (2022). The live action Voltron film will have Bob Koplar (Voltron Force, Voltron: Legendary Defender) as co-producer representing World Events Productions. Ellen Shanman will be co-writing with Thurber.
Now that the live action movie is back on track, Voltron is needed once more. This is the story of the super force of space explorers, specially trained and sent by the Alliance to bring back Voltron, Defender of the Universe! Let’s hope that it is actually the lions who will come to the rescue.
