Voltron Season 3: What to Expect

With Voltron: Legendary Defender season 3 not arriving on Netflix until September 2017 fans have a whole summer before their favorite giant robot lion show returns. To tide you over, Den of Geek spoke with the show’s creators and actors about what to expect from Voltron season 3. We already know Prince Lotor will be a part of it and from what was glimpsed at the Wondercon panel it looks like he means business. 

Voltron: Legendary Defender story editor Tim Hedrick teases that not only will Lotor will be very different his original series counterpart, he’ll also stand in sharp contrast to Zarkon.  “He’s got a master plan he’s looking to execute,” Hedrick says. “There’s gonna be a lot of upcoming trials and tribulations for our team in dealing with that.”

To those fans who have just gotten into Voltron thanks to Legendary Defender, Lotor could potentially be a huge game changer for the series. In the original 1984 Voltron series, Lotor was the son of King Zarkon. Unlike his father, who generally stayed on Planet Doom and sent Robeasts to attack the Voltron Force, Prince Lotor always took the fight directly to the team. He’d get in dramatic sword battles with Keith and pilot robeasts himself.

Lotor was a much more proactive villain than his father. From what we saw of the Wondercon teaser, Lotor is ready to blow up whole civilizations to get what he wants. He’s not playing by Zarkon’s rulebook. This is just like the original series, where Lotor was always scheming against Zarkon to usurp his rule.

More importantly, as Voltron: Legendary Defender takes more story inspiration from the original Beast King GoLion, Lotor in that series is half Altean. The GoLion version of Zarkon kidnapped an Altean woman and thus the GoLion version of Lotor was born. With the connection between Zarkon and the Lions in Legendary Defender, the Go-Lion backstory could make its way into the series even if it’s in some adapted form.

Lotor also had a very strange crush on Allura, stemming from the fact she looked incredibly like his mother. Considering the ways Voltron: Legendary Defender has taken out more of the overtly sexist tones of the original series we can only hope this element won’t make it over.

Tyler Labine (Hunk) says, “Lotor is in my opinion one of the most complex characters in the show.” Bex Taylor-Klaus (Pidge) adds, “That could even be an understatement. He’s intricate.”

This lines up with Hedrick’s statement. In the original series Lotor was fairly one note but now, much like the other characters in Voltron: Legendary Defender, he’ll be given a much deeper purpose and character in the series

During the WonderCon panel executive producers Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery mentioned that Lotor will be heavily involved in season three, but that doesn’t mean the Voltron Paladins are going to be left out in the cold. Jeremy Shada (Lance) is excited that all the cast members “have some great drama points.” He then goes on to joke, “I mean like, Lance dies so that was a fun moment.”

A lot of these drama points will undoubtly deal with the fallout of the team losing Shiro. With their team leader gone, how will the other Paladins step up? Will Keith take on piloting the Black Lion as he did in the season two premiere? Will Allura pilot a lion? Will Lance leap into the Red Lion as he did in the original series?

Josh Keaton (Shiro) hopes that his character will make a return to the series as well but Shiro’s disappearance will allow the other characters develop. Shada expands on that,

“It gives characters like Lance and everyone a lot more responsibility and forces them to be a bit more serious at times.” 

After season two where some fans complained Lance, Pidge, and Hunk didn’t get much focus it’s good to know at least Lance will be stepping back into the spotlight. Dos Santos tells fans there’s a bigger picture at hand and to just stick along for the ride.

“When the first season came out a lot of what we heard online was, ‘We’d like to see more Keith.’ And we went, ‘He’s coming.’ And he came. Second season came out and they’re like, ‘Where’s Hunk and Lance? What’s going on?’ Just wait guys. We love each character equally we’re not trying to write anyone out of the show. It’s the risk of doing an ensemble cast.”

What about the giant robot itself? At the end of season two Voltron showed off a whole new weapon with the blazing sword. Will we be seeing more new powers? Dos Santos said “I think the characters and Voltron are all evolving. Ultimately we are trying to make a show that is attempting to sell as many toys as humanly possible. We try not to think that way honestly when creating the show. We’re just trying to tell a cool story with compelling characters. All that stuff is on the table.”

Voltron: Legendary Defender season three drops on Netflix in September 2017.

Huge thanks to Dani De Wald and Pixelated Geek for contributing to this article.

Shamus Kelley really hopes Prince Lotor doesn’t have a creepy thing for Allura. Follow him on Twitter!