Giant mecha TV show Voltron is getting its own live-action film – and now the Man of Steel himself, Henry Cavill, has agreed to star in it.
Amazon MGM’s upcoming live-action Voltron film has found its lead actor, and it’s none other than Superman himself, Henry Cavill. The former Man Of Steel has been announced as the star of the project which is set to shoot this autumn with Red Notice's Rawson Marshall Thurber directing.
It’s been just over a decade since Cavill made his debut as Superman, and in the years since, he’s adopted a few other memorable roles, including Geralt the Witcher in the Netflix show, and fist-cocking, moustachioed assassin in Mission: Impossible – Fallout, not to mention doing a turn or two as Sherlock Holmes in Netflix’s Enola Holmes films.
The actor has also turned up in a couple of Guy Ritchie films (one of which, Into The Grey is yet to release) and is set to turn up in the planned Warhammer TV show, and Chad Stahelski’s Highlander reboot. Yep, it’s busy times ahead for the British actor, but before he brushes up on his swordplay skills for Highlander, set to shoot in January, he’ll be taking on the might of Voltron.
Voltron was originally an animated series that aired in the 1980s. The premise was about five pilots whose craft could all join together to form a gigantic lion mecha. What with Transformers that combined together, Voltron the Defender of the Universe and then the Power Rangers following not too long after, there was a ten year stretch where, if your TV show didn’t have a mega-robot that was formed out of smaller robots, you were way wide of the zeitgeist. (All of these shows, of course, hailed from the home of mecha, Japan; Voltron was essentially a string of anime TV shows from that country re-edited and dubbed.)
Netflix briefly revived the idea of a Voltron animated series in 2016 with Voltron: Legendary Defender. The show lasted two seasons but this Amazon project is going for the live action approach. The casting of Cavill – who will join newcomer, Daniel Quinn-Toye according to The Hollywood Reporter – is a fun addition and we’re hoping the whole thing doesn’t take itself too seriously. Whilst there’s no slated release date for Voltron as of yet, we’d imagine that it’ll be out towards the end of next year. We’ll bring you more updates as we hear them.