Voltron movie is inevitable, we all knew it will be on the big-screen sooner or later and now, the time has come. There were many attempts in the past to bring a live-action Voltron movie to the big screen, but these efforts have been failed because of creative or legal altercations amongst the owners. However, the fantastic success of Voltron: Legendary Defender animated series on Netflix has turned the tables, and we have some excellent news for Voltron fans and detailed information about all the developments on the Voltron’s Live-action adaptation. The talented Producer Mark Gordon (He has produced a plethora of good movies and TV shows from Romance to politics to Action, you name he has done it!) has pulled in David Hayter (Yes, he is the same genius who wrote first 2 X-Men movies) to write the script.

Voltron movie has been under production phase for a very long time, in fact, we could have seen the film even before Michael Bay’s Transformers if Mark Gordon could have managed to cut through all the financial and legal weeds in his way back in 2005. But now, things are more in his favor, because Universal Studios has acquired Dreamworks Animations, and with this deal, they have also attained all the movie rights for the Voltron Live-action film as well.

Transformers and Pacific Rim franchises have already given the taste of giant robots on the big screen to the audiences, and both the franchises had their pros and shortcomings. Voltron movie creators have the upper hand here, they can now see these gaps and create a more unique and impactful mecha movie. But it’s not going to be easy, Transformer series has already landed more than 5 movies, and Pacific Rim has introduced 2 films, this could mean that the market is saturated and if Voltron Live-action film couldn’t deliver something new and fresh for the viewers – It will die a painful death on the box-office, completely destroying any hope for silver-screen appearance in the near future.

Here are the 9 elements that we think are “must” for the success of Voltron Movie:-

1) Bring Something Fresh To The Table But Keep The Spirit Of Original Voltron Cartoon Intact.

We already have transformers, Pacific Rim and Power Rangers that deal with similar kind of plot. You have teenagers who get the responsibility to save the universe, and they can only do it by piloting massive robots. No matter, how much the critics hate Michael Bay’s adaptation of Transformers, he did a fantastic job in keeping the balance between realism and futurism in his movies (Even though the film was filled with generic dialogue, generic comedy, and generic characters). They cannot just throw in 5 guys and 5 giant lion robots in the mix and hope that the audience would buy it. No. It cannot happen in today’s era. The critics will butcher the movie even before it hits the theaters.

They need to ground the story in science, the characters must feel organic, their motivations must feel genuine, but they can use the word “Quintessence” (which is more like Magic in Voltron universe) to do a blanket explanation for anything that cannot be explained by scientific concepts. There is a reason why people liked the source content from 80’s, and there is also a reason why people loved Netflix reboot Voltron: Legendary Defender, understand what is in common between them and impart it in the script of the film. We don’t have to completely change everything just because it is a silver screen film. You don’t need to fix things that are working, we just need to improve them.

2) Diverse Cast Is A Must For Voltron Movie – Do Not Ignore It.

Do you guys remember, what happened with the Avatar movie? Do you folks remember what happened to the “Ghost In The Shell” movie? Voltron movie project already has a lot of love amongst the fans, they really want to see it and they have been waiting for this for decades. Don’t ruin it by Whitewashing, Blackwashing, Yellowwashing or whatever the hell washing that people keep saying on the Internet. Changing the ethnicity or color of the major characters will welcome bad publicity and hate from the real fans. There are thousands of people of color who are incredible actors, get them in for auditions and pick the best ones. Simple.

3) Don’t Make The Plot Super Gritty Or Dark, There Has To Be Some Good Humor.

The reboot of Voltron cartoon on Netflix has done a fantastic job by mixing the best of both worlds, it is a perfect mixture of serious and fun storytelling. The characters don’t forget to have fun, and at the same time, the consequences of their actions/choices have a real/grave impact on the actual storyline. And if David Hayter does his homework correctly while writing his script, we are pretty sure that his movie will be very close to Voltron: The Legendary Defender. But yeah, don’t be mistaken, the people involved in the Netflix animated series have already made it clear in last year’s comic-con that none of their team members are involved in the development of the live-action Voltron film. Hmm…Interesting.

4) Should Not Run Behind Giving Us A Sequel.

One of the significant problem with movies these days are that they try to give us a larger than life story pieces, and spend hell lot of time explaining the culture and crap of their story universe that should actually be in part 2 or 3 of their movie series. The viewers instead of feeling connected with the actual characters, get a Ph.D. on the movie universe that doesn’t serve much on the actual plot of the movie. The movie should focus on building the characters by showing the struggles of the characters, should explore their urges to leave their planet and the situations that led them inside their insanely huge robots. The movie should not be 120 Minutes long advertisement for the next film. Having said that, I am open to an ORGANIC mild marvel movie styled cliffhangers if they are incredibly desperate to promote their movie universe.

5) Size Of The Robots Should Be Massive, And Transformation Must Feel Mechanical.

The robot fights in Voltron have to be treated as significant events in the storyline. They cannot be like Power Rangers Zord battles in the TV shows. The Transformation of the Voltron should take heavy lifting, and even though Voltron runs on the magical “Quintessence,” the movement and joining of the robots should feel mechanical. The mechanical joining of all sorts of grills, wheels, and shafts feel incredibly satisfying to watch. This is one area where both Pacific Rim, Power Rangers, and Transformers fell short, Voltron movie creators can easily dominate by making the Robot fights and transformation GRAND And AMAZING phenomenon to watch. Let’s face the truth, at the end of the day, 98% of the audience in the theater is there to watch Gigantic Robots destroying each other. Hell Yeah!

6) Quality Of VFX has to be Outstanding.

A lot of people have called CGI on Transformers and Pacific Rim 2 a low-effort exercise. Even though the action scenes were excellent in both the film franchises, the computer graphics felt flimsy and superficial. If the Voltron Live-action movie has to stand-out from the crowd, they need to pack a state-of-the-art CGI that actually makes people go “Woah! Did You See That? It Was Awesome”. They need to create many such moments throughout the movie. Every strike of Lazer Blades and Missiles between the massive monsters and robots must have that pressure and impact!

7) Budget Has To Be Ample For Voltron Movie.

Movies like these would require to create massive sets and CGI. There is no running away from that. They need to have a gigantic budget, and they will also need to do enough advertisement to tell people that this is not just another Transformers or Pacific Rim, this is something entirely different. Without proper cash flow in the hands of Director, he cannot deliver a good Voltron movie that’s the bottom line.

8) Well Experienced Director.

Mark Gordon is an experienced Producer, he has been in the system for several years. He will undoubtedly pick up some great names for the director’s Seat. But if I could tell him whom to pick up, I would say, Gareth Edwards (Godzilla), Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World), Ron Howard (Goonies, Star Wars, and Willow) Or Guillermo Del Toro (A Bunch Of Good Movies, Check his IMDB). These three directors have always shown balanced approach towards big budget movies, and they have a fantastic clear vision of the end product that they desire, and viewers connect to.

9) Cast Selection Means A Lot Here, They Need Some Really Talented Actors To Pull This Off.

I want to congratulate casting directors of IT, Power Rangers movie and Strangers Things for selecting some of the best hidden young talents. Voltron movie creators will have to get some great young actors for the lead roles, they could be familiar or fresh faces, but they got to be expressive and full of energy. We have already done a fantastic fan casting for the upcoming Voltron movie, you can see it HERE.

10) Don’t Make The Voltron Live-Action Movie, If You Are Not Confident.

Don’t force the movie on fans or audience. There’s a lot of content out there that screams for reboot or remake, pick them up and bring them to life. There are countless big budget Giant Robots and Massive Monsters movies that release every second or third month each year, and if Voltron movie is just going to be another Generic action film then the creators shouldn’t even bother investing their money or time on this franchise. Leave it. A lot of nostalgic memories are attached to this awesome cartoon from 80’s, and seeing it getting butchered piece by piece by bad writing, abysmal acting deliveries, choppy VFX, and the lifeless plot will only hurt the original fans. Dreamworks Animation has already rebooted the cartoon via Voltron: Legendary Defender, switch your focus on it. Forget about the live-action Voltron movie if it’s just going to be a low-effort cash grabber.