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Live-Action Voltron Film Casts Alba Baptista, Samson Kayo, Tharanya Tharan
posted on by Alex Mateo
The Hollywood Reporter reported that the film will star Henry Cavill (The Witcher, Man of Steel). Entertainment sites reported that Daniel Quinn-Toye will be a lead actor in the film. Quinn-Toye served as Tom Holland's understudy and as Paris in the West End production of Romeo & Juliet this past spring. The film has also cast Sterling K. Brown (American Fiction, Black Panther), Rita Ora ( Fifty Shades of Grey, Detective Pikachu), and John Kim (Cruel Intentions, The Little Things).
Rawson Marshall Thurber (Red Notice, We're the Millers, Central Intelligence, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story) is directing the film, which will begin shooting in Australia this fall. Thurber is also co-writing the script with Ellen Shanman and producing the project with Hidden Pictures' Todd Lieberman, Hobie Films' David Hoberman (Beauty and the Beast 2017), and World Events Productions' Bob Koplar (Voltron: Legendary Defender).
Amazon was in talks for the live-action rights to Voltron in 2022, alongside Warner Bros., Universal, and several other studios.
World Events Productions, Ltd. (WEP) and the late Peter O'Keefe adapted the first 1984-1985 Voltron television series from two Toei Animation robot anime: King of Beasts Golion and Armored Fleet Dairugger XV. Both Golion and the first Voltron story centered on young pilots who fight against an empire of alien conquerors — with the help of five mechanized lions that combine to form a robot.
Since the first series, the franchise spawned three television series produced outside Japan: the 3D CG Voltron: The Third Dimension in 1998, the 2D Voltron Force in 2011, and DreamWorks and Netflix's Voltron: Legendary Defender in 2016.
The eighth and final season of the Voltron: Legendary Defender animated series premiered on Netflix in December 2018. The animated series will leave the service on December 6. Netflix is streaming 12 episodes of the original Voltron series under the title Voltron 84.
Studios previously attempted a live-action Hollywood project for the franchise in 2007 and then in 2012, but neither project moved forward.
Source: Deadline (Anthony D'Alessandro)
