Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery discuss how they brought the new Voltron series to life.
From days of long ago, from uncharted regions of the universe, comes a legend.
The legend of DreamWorksVoltron Legendary Defender.
How were you first approached about this new Voltron series?
That kinda piqued our interests.
We were kind of like, What if we could do Voltron?
What would we do with it?
Theres so much potential for improvement.
It just so happened things worked out in our favor.
Him and Joaquim had a meeting.
It was just a general meeting and at the end of the meeting he brought upVoltron.
Why does Voltron have a cross on his chest?
Were you a part of those discussions?
Dos Santos:That may have been a little before we came on.
Those were questions we had honestly.
The five lions thing is a given.
You need the limbs and a torso and the head, etc.
I dont know the answer.
Is there an answer?
Did you find out the answer?
Montgomery:I dont know!
Now Im gonna look into it.
It was more just an aesthetic.
It was trying to get across an idea without necessarily pinpointing anything.
They looked at that as a very Arthurian lore symbol.
Very sort of western symbol and thats all they really needed to get across.
Once you knew, okay, were doing Voltron, what was the first thing that you did?
Did you watch all of the episodes?
How did the process start?
Montgomery:I know the first thing I did but I cant say it because itll be a spoiler.
That story was a lot darker than anything we could really do here in America.
Honestly I dont know if audiences were as sophisticated then as they are now.
Those themes fromGoLionare something we were able to infuse in terms of their more sophisticated nature into our show.
They definitely wouldnt have gotten across in the 80s.
Was it just the Lion Force episodes you watched?
Did you watch Vehicle?
Dos Santos:No, we just watched the originalVoltronseries.
That was the prime show we were trying to reboot here, andGoLion.
You mentioned there were things you remembered about Voltron from when you were kids.
What are things you specifically remember, or what you thought Voltron was when you were kids?
Dos Santos:Its literally the thing where so many people rememberVoltron, right?
They remember the robot, they remember the lions, and they loosely remember these characters.
They dont remember the plot of the show.
We largely fell into that category.
It wasnt necessarily about following this big continuing story arc.
What characters did you play as when you were kids?
Montgomery:I was always Allura.
She was really the only one.
I remember Allura, I kinda remember there was the short one and there was the leader guy.
At some point I just had zero recollection.
I had completely forgotten about him.
So far, at least in what weve seen, its just five guys.
Is that just sticking true to the original source material?
Do you have something up your sleeve?
But again, this is just the starting point for the series.
What happens down the line remains to be seen.
Were not closing the doors, were not trying to be exclusive or anything.
And the Allura character is not in any way a background character.
Shes a huge part of the series, regardless of whether shes piloting a lion or not.
I honestly just have so many recollections of her constantly fainting.
Not what we really wanted to do this time around.
She has the most ties to the backstory and origin of Voltron.
Shes really the entry point for all of our pilots to really understand what theyre really getting themselves into.
We spoke Kimberly Brooks, who plays Allura, and she mentioned a process with the Lions called Quintessence.
Can you tell us about that?
Dos Santos:Yeah, thats basically what our universe is powered on.
Its a story point that will become more robust as the series continues.
Thats the element that a lot of the things in our universe is powered on.
We kind of stuck with this very true to the originalVoltronseries, combination of sci-fi and magic quality.
Quintessence is hinging more on the kind of magic side.
Its kind of what we use to explain those unexplainable force that happen in our show.
So will we see some conflict with those perspectives?
In all the material weve seen so far, the Lions are sentient.
Can you talk about how that whole process came about?
We wanted it to feel so much more than that.
So we kind of introduced this concept that our pilots dont just get a key.
People dont just hop in a lion.
They have to be chosen or accepted by that lion.
Dos Santos:That to is something that will evolve throughout the course of the series.
Its a sentience that changes and evolves and moves into a different place as the show goes on.
So these five pilots will form a relationship with the lions?
So it helps on a character level across the board.
Talk to us about creating this universe.
Can you talk to us about creating that universe?
Montgomery:It was not easy.
Dos Santos:On a TV schedule, believe me it is not easy.
Montgomery:But thats half of the fun of having a show in space.
And then youre just gonna sit on that planet for the whole series?
How do they interact with the world?
What are their roles?
And heres a planet but they wear Jetsons outfits.
You want to see the characters that are affected by it.
Dos Santos:Characters that evolve over time.
Characters that are complex that come into this world from their own perspectives.
I was a big fan of thoseLegend of Korraart books.
Are we going to be seeing aVoltronart book for this series?
Dos Santos:Were trying, man.
Montgomery:Id love to.
Dos Santos:Weve definitely brought it up in every internal executive meeting weve been to.
Can you talk about the music of the series?
Youve mentioned youre staying away from the original theme song.
What kind of music are you going for with this show?
Those cartoons that we grew up watching came from.
Theres a lot of heavy synth, a heavy retro synth vibe that lends itself to a sci-fi feeling.
Also this very sort of cosmic sense of exploration.
The composer that we have, Brad Breeck, hes awesome.
If you could pick one of your favorite elements from the show, what would it be?
Dos Santos:Its that same idea but on an entire character wide level.
Seeing how those play out and seeing the fans react to where these characters are going.
Thats really exciting to me.
Dos Santos:Thats super awesome, man.
Can you tell us a little about the toy line coming out for the series?
Montgomery:We got a little glimpse at it and it looks amazing.
Ill be buying them.
Dos Santos:Were big toy collectors as well.
If you could see our offices youd know were legit toy collectors.
You mentioned earlier withVoltronits a lot of people remembering the more surface elements and less the plots themselves.
So what do you think are some of the most important elements with the show?
Montgomery:Beyond the obvious surface things of the pilots and our lions.
I think weve already talked about this but the combination of the magic and sci-fi.
Its got an air of mystery to it.
Favorite lion and why?
I just thought proportionally the leg lends itself to the coolest shape when in lion form.
So since I was a kid, blue lion has been my favorite.
Sven used to be my favorite.
We would like to thank DreamWorks for making this interview happen.
Stay tuned to Den of Geek for more interviews with the cast, coming soon!
see to it to check outDreamWorks Voltron Legendary Defenderwhen it drops June 10th on Netflix.
