Voltron, the beloved ’80s Japanese anime series that got a recent Netflix reboot with Voltron: Legendary Defender, is coming to the big screen — in live-action form.
The Hollywood Reporter explains that Rawson Marshall Thurber, the writer-director of the streaming service’s hit action comedy Red Notice, starring Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds, has kicked off a bidding war with movie studios looking to back him.
According to the trade, Thurber sent around a demo reel of what a live-action version could look like, and studios including Warner Bros., Amazon and Universal have been champing at the bit to make a deal.
Incidentally, THR points out, Netflix “isn’t in the running.”
For the uninitiated, Voltron was the name of a giant robot made up of robotic lions, piloted by a team of young heroes. Voltron: Defender of the Universe was the English-dubbed import of the Japanese original, Beast King GoLion.
The show was a cultural touchstone for actors and filmmakers of a certain age: it has been referenced in movies like Deadpool, and TV shows including Family Guy, Rick and Morty, and Bones, while recording artists from Eminem to Letters to Cleo have name-dropped the bot.
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