The Abandoned Plans For A Voltron Live Action Series

DreamWorks Voltron Legendary Defender was a smash hit. The Voltron fanbase exploded in size, we got a new toyline, and new comics. After such a long wait after Voltron Force ended in 2012, it was great to see the series return to TV.

But did you know we were close to getting a live action Voltron TV series? No no, not the long gestating movie fans have been hearing about for over ten years. A TV series.

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While attending Power Morphicon in August of 2016, I was chatting with the executive producer of Power Rangers SPD, Greg Aronowitz. A longtime fan favorite, Aronowitz is well known for his production work and special effects. On SPD Aronowitz was an executive producer, writer, director, and created many of the aliens featured in the season. The topic of Voltron came up in our conversation and he casually let slip he had been working on a proposed live action version. I, of course, had to know more.

Tell me about this Voltron show.

Well I had done a short with Alex Albrecht many years ago called Voltron: The End. Alex was honing up his directing chops and we were both Voltron fans and he just wanted to do something that he thought people would be interested in seeing and get to do some directing.

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It was super popular so we ended up talking to the company that owns the rights for Voltron and got into serious negotiations for creating a live action show. It (the show) didn’t have anything to do with the short, it was just a reimagining of Voltron. We wrote scripts and started building models and there’s some images of some of the lions and stuff floating around on the internet. We were gearing up to full on make the show and talking to a network. Then DreamWorks took over the rights, not necessarily for live action but the Voltron rights, and announced they were going to do an animated show and everything just kinda fell apart.

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We still hold out and have hopes that one day we’ll do it. Although a lot of the storyline we were working on is kind of in the DreamWorks show, even though it would be different and more dramatic because of the nature of live action. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t other stories but what we were working on was going to blow people’s minds. I kept saying to everyone, “This is my next SPD.” I’m going to bring everything I brought to SPD to Voltron.

Would it have been for kids or adults?

Along the same lines as SPD, what I miss in modern American television is 80’s television. I grew up with Buck Rogers,Battlestar Galactica, and V. These shows that, I was a little kid, but I’d watch with my dad. It was just fun for everybody, that’s what we really wanted to try. Not childish but no decapitations or things that would freak people out but not pandering. It would have been sophisticated but full on sci-fi.

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Is there anything you can tell us about what the stories would have been?

We want to keep that under wraps. The hope is that someday it will happen. I don’t wanna do spoilers before it’s even made.

Anything else you want to say about it?

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and leave comments to perpetuate the rumors that we can one day make this. I swear, that’s the main question you get when you go into the meetings. They’re like, “well how many followers do you have on Instagram?” That’s what matters these days. Follow BarnyardFX, Greg Aronwitz, Alex Albrecht.

Shamus Kelley is a pop culture/television writer and official Power Rangers expert. Follow him on Twitter! Read more articles by him here!