Forum - View topicDeadline: Amazon 'in Talks' to Acquire Rights for Live-Action Voltron Project
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Beatdigga
 Posts: 4365 Location: New York |
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So this is actually the third Amazon anime project IIRC, after Promised Neverland getting picked up for a TV show and Hellsing. And ironically enough, the second time they rescued a license from Netflix following a commercially unsuccessful Dreamworks adaptation of an old show (they currently have a live-action She-Ra in the pipeline that people expect to essentially be Xena, Warrior Princess).
Speaking of, with Dreamworks not involved in the production in any way, this seems to confirm fully that the script will be an adaptation of the 80s series, not the unsuccessful reboot. Then again, if it was based on the reboot, the bidding war likely wouldn’t have been so heated. |
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FunkyDude88
 Posts: 108 |
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Please don't use the ugly techno-organic look that Transformers and Power Rangers did.
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MFrontier
Posts: 11128 |
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I am genuinely curious how they'll adapt it in relation to the Dreamworks reboot. |
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The Not so Chosen One
Posts: 433 |
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I'm so happy it's Amazon doing the adaptation istead of Netflix lol I still wish the had the One Piece rights for its adaptation instead of NF, and I hope they still get more rights than them in the future.
Yeah, I second this. |
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Beatdigga
Posts: 4365 Location: New York |
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My understanding is “pretend it doesn’t exist and ignore the VLD fandom.” |
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PurpleWarrior13
 Posts: 2025 |
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Doesn’t Dreamworks own the US rights to Voltron as a whole (since they own World Events Productions)? I’m sure they’ll at least be a producing partner. |
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Beatdigga
Posts: 4365 Location: New York |
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No they do not. What they owned what Classic Media, which had the distribution rights to a bunch of old WEP and Filmation shows. They leveraged that to negotiate for the rights to the Voltron franchise as a whole and made what ended up being VLD. While those rights could have been held longer, Dreamworks/Universal willingly let them expire when they failed to produce a movie in terms of the original contract. So the rights reverted to WEP TV Inc, the master licensor, who helped kick off the bidding war. However, Dreamworks does own all the original concepts made strictly for VLD, character designs, Shiro, etc. So WEP can’t use those without Dreamworks’ permission, but again, given the commercial failure of VLD, coupled with WEP President Bob Koplar’s own comments about moving on from VLD (specifically at VoltCon 2020 when he said he was done with Universal, claiming they, and I quote “Didn’t get Voltron”), he won’t be using them even if he could. |
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borisdrakoni
Posts: 49 |
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Having a director and co-writer attached to the project with barely any credits to their names is already a pretty big red flag and really doesn't do much to inspire confidence in it. Amazon also doesn't exactly have the best track record in terms of its adaptations remaining faithful to and respectful of their source material. I'd be happy to be proven wrong, but until some plot and trailers are revealed my expectations for this one are going to be low.
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Vladimir Morales
Posts: 190 |
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Who even gives a fudge about Voltron nowadays? Legendary Defender is the shining example of a toxic fanbase.
Rumor has it that DreamWorks ended that show the way it did just to get rid of the license and its toxic fanbase. |
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Beatdigga
Posts: 4365 Location: New York |
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Legendary Defender is a toxic fanbase that is an internet laughingstock. Voltron as a franchise is still a beloved 80s cartoon that was getting referenced in movies as recently as Spider-Man Far From Home. Transformers was known for a similarly rabid fanbase, but when Michael Bay's movies hit, that fanbase was ignored in favor of the literal billions that franchise rolled in. WEP is hoping for the same thing here I presume, a big-budget movie targeted toward casual audiences that can erase the bad reputation of the previous show by essentially making something that not only isn't for them but is for a more casual audience but actively goes out of its way to entice said casual audience and repel that toxic fanbase. |
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vampiyan
 Posts: 64 |
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Voltron is still fondly remembered by boomers so there is potential for lightning to strike twice here as it did for Transformers. The Soul of Chogokin Go-Lion release from a few years back seemed to be pretty hot item from what I remember. Could be good. Could be another dud like Power Rangers. We'll have to see. Granted, out of all the 80s/early 90s franchises Transformers was easily the most enduring one since it continued to get new toys, series, movies, comics, and other installments. I don't think any other 80s franchise is going to be able to match it aside from Ninja Turtles since Nickelodeon is really pushing hard. But I would not lump Legendary Defender in with OG Voltron fans any more than I would Princesses of Power with He-Ra and She-Ra fans. They're aimed at two completely different audience and have very little crossover between the two. This is most certainly going to be aiming for the OG audience. |
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Vladimir Morales
Posts: 190 |
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If it's based on the OG show, then I will be so happy. Legendary Defender was [expletive] bullshit. I didn't even finish season 1 because of how [expletive] cringe it was.
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