Its not easy to bring back a beloved franchise.
Past attempts at newVoltronseries have all proven that.
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What was this process in designing this show?
Did you start with Voltron itself?
That so many people already loved and had already captured so many hearts.
I personally have always really loved the giant robot genre.
I was like, I cant believe Im gonna work onVoltron!
When I first came on, the first couple of weeks we worked on Voltron and the Lions.
So how does the design process work in this sort of case?
Are there a zillion drafts of all the different versions of Voltron?
How did you narrow it down to what we eventually got?
It was really fun in the beginning during that brainstorming phase, we were all doing preliminary sketches.
We were all thinking we can go this way we can go that that way.
Even still we went through tons of sketches before we locked into a final design.
Everyone kinda pitched in and contributed a little bit to the pot.
That, for me, as a designer, was the biggest challenge.
When it comes to designing giant robots, no one has quite perfected it like Japanese mecha designers.
We looked to a lot of inspiration from properties likeGundamand stuff like that.
We learned a lot from those designs as far as how joints work.
Especially with Voltron it was tough because hes not just a giant robot.
He has to be able to be reverse engineered into five giant robot lions.
In the beginning I didnt talk directly with anybody from consumer products or toys or anything like that.
We were kinda give those parameters from the get go.
We definitely wanted to keep it simple and fun and not too Transformers-y.
You know the newTransformers.
The original Voltron was big and bulky with cool big shapes and a great overall silhouette.
Those were all things we loved and wanted to keep.
In the beginning it was just me and Joaquim and Lauren.
I was there doing the groundwork, setting up a lot of the style guides for the background design.
I had a lot of conversations with Lauren and Joaquim and Ryu.
We all came up something that we thought we would like and be sustainable through the episodes.
When you were designing the show did you watch the originalVoltron?
The other versions of Voltron to see how those designs looked?
I watched the original series.
I didnt watchVehicle Voltron.
But I did watch parts ofGoLionas well.
It would be poser of me to say that.
Cast and crew at the Voltron art show.
Photo courtesy of Lauren Montgomery.
What was it like going to that Voltron art show last week?
It was pretty magical.
It was really cool seeing so many people.
It was so gratifying to see everyones hard work coming together.
I think were in a really lucky situation where were working on something likeVoltron.
And then having DreamWorks supporting us with all these events like the art show.
Its an incredible opportunity.
How did you get your start in this business?
Thats where Im from.
I did odds and ends kind of jobs.
I know a little bit of Maya, a little bit of other 3D packages.
I started off doing modeling of props and little things like that.
So I did some freelance jobs here and there and then I moved to LA from Seattle.
Its in Pasadena, so shout out to them!
Its cool because a lot of the classes are taught by industry professionals so everythings really relevant and current.
Thats kind of where it all happened!
Basically thats what I like to draw in my spare time.Im really into animal drawing.
I like to go home and read about muscles and skeletons.
I think a lot of that honestly informed the design of the Voltron lions.
Favorite Lion and why?
I knew you were gonna ask this so I already prepared myself!
Because he was the first Lion, he was the guinea pig Lion.
We did so many iterations drawing him.
I pulled out probably half a head figuring out the design.
So whenever people ask me that I always say hes like my favorite son.
I call him Bluey.
Check out the next page for our chat with Tim Hedrick, story editor for the new series.
Tim Hedrick is well known in nerd circles.
He wrote some of the most beloved episodes ofAvatar: The Last AirbenderandThe Legend of Korra.
When did you first hear youd be working on the new Voltron series?
It a little over two years ago.
I think I started here April of two years ago.
Its been a long ride.
What are some of the first ideas that jumped out when you started to create this universe?
Really I had to go back and watch the old show.
Because I rememberedVoltronas a kid.
In terms of major plots, because as a kid maybe it went over my head.
When I went back to watch I realized, not really.
It was pretty much the way I remembered it.
We were pretty free to just get going on it.
Worked from there and talked about what everyones motivation was and just let it evolve naturally.
How much research did you have to do?
Did you just watch the original Voltron?
I really enjoyed that.
Cause Id never seen it and wow, this makes sense!
It filled in a lot of the blanks.
Theres just a wealth of universe.
I hadnt watched any ofVoltron Forceso I took a look at that.
We went back through the whole back catalog.
What were some the big things that jumped out at you that you needed to keep?
We really wanted to keep the original core characters.Voltron Forcegot away from that.
Who is this for?
Whats the worth that comes with that?
Youre throwing away everything people loved from the original.
But not throw away any of the core.
Voltronis all about teamwork.
Thats the whole show.
You start with a team.
You start building the team.
I think if you follow their character arcs youll get to a good place.
The show has a really great sense of humor about it.
It wasnt, oh lets stop and make a joke, its more situational thats organic to the characters.
Can you talk about choosing that direction to go with the show?
I think that comedy does not undercut drama.
I think it sets it up and makes things even more dramatic.
If you play that just straight it ends up being campy.
Theyre really funny and its only natural for us to start goofing around and making jokes throughout the series.
So that was a big part of the fun of doing it.
You cant just have this super straight space story and expect people to sit through.
I think were kinda past that as a science fiction viewing society.
Something I notice is the show isnt super reference heavy.
What lead to staying away from those heavy references to the past?
Im just thinking, we have such a long way to go with the storyline.
Quite frankly, our core audience has never heard ofVoltron.
Probably their older brothers uncles dad are fans but we dont need to be catering the show to them.
And there will be plenty of opportunities for Easter eggs and they come.
Theres a zillion of them.
Yeah, the whole dynotherms connected thing.
You know, it didnt really fit with the direction we were going.
I understand people are huge fans of the original and they want to see that stuff.
Its a choice we made and we never looked back.
The characters in this series are so fleshed out whereas in the original show theyre more one note.
Kind of shape based characterization.
That just makes the adventures that they have week to week more personal to the characters.
Then youve got Lance who is kind of a blank slate.
I think a lot of that comes from acting.
Its a combination of a lot of things.
Instead of trying to cramp your view down the middle, youve got to use everybody.
Its an all hands on deck undertaking.
Will we be seeing any LGBT content inVoltron?
I think Ill just let that play out as we go.
No comment on that question.
What is your favorite character dynamic on the show?
I really like the Hunk, Lance, Pidge, Galaxy Garrison team.
Theyre just a core group of misfits, theyre really fun.
I love the idea that Lance thinks hes the very best pilot there is but clearly is not.
He has this whole feud with Keith thats playing in his mind that Keith doesnt even recognize.
Hes such an ego maniac and pseudo ladies man thats he a lot of fun to play with.
And then Pidge, is just this little kid who is along for this crazy ride.
The fact hes the brains of the operation is a fun dynamic.
I really like the interplay of all the characters on our show.
Coran is a scene stealer.
Rhys Darby is a comedic genius and hes great in every scene hes ever in.
How is the upcoming comic book tied to the continuity of the series?
Thats a dream come true that its happening so fast.
Then it all goes wrong.
In the comic we can just top ourselves and thats been a lot of fun.
Those are coming out great.
Theyre really fun and funny and hopefully people will enjoy those.
I think I like Hunks Lion.
Im gonna say Yellow cause its the most forgiving.
How about our chat with the voice actress for Allura and Pidge?
DreamWorksVoltron Legendary Defenderis streaming now on Netflix.
