opinion on the upcoming live action Voltron? i really wish i was joking but this is a serious question and not some darker timeline shit
lol I know, I know. It's all good. When I first heard the rumors I figured it would just be some talk and eventually blow over when studios realized its wasn't really processable. But now it looks like there's some actual SERIOUS bidding going on and an actually script, so who knows? I understand that there's a HUGE drive for nostalgia bait in Hollywood these days, both for: lack of originality, nerd culture suddenly being profitable (or at least Hollywood realizing it is), a freak ton MULTITUDE of streaming services all popping up and wanting to get something people are going to pay them money to watch and simply the generation that grew up with OG Voltron being financially fluid (or more so) . But after the way VLD crashed and burned so spectacularly you'd think they'd give Voltron a longer cool off period. Here's the thing though -
MOST Voltron remakes are BAD. Like if you're lucky just short and bad and if not, they're 'long and muddled and lost their plot' bad. Even the original Voltron was - it was really good for its time but a lot of especially the Lion Voltron doesn't hold up as good. Vehicle Voltron would make a GREAT Netflix series but no one remembers Vehicle Voltron so everyone always just grabs for the more popular lions. Point is - Third Dimension - horrible animation, terrible story. Voltron Force - look, personal opinion only but I couldn't even make it through the first episode and the memory of it is what actively turned me off from giving VLD a crack when its first season aired. VLD itself? Great start up, long ugly spiral downward as the seasons went on until the trashfire pit that was the last few seasons of utter nonsense. I'm going to be wild right now and just say it but -
Voltron has a habit of turning out BAD remakes.
And yet - its still getting remade. Voltron seems to be one of those weird amphibious cars that never really works but people keep talking about how cool a concept it is despite that. Don't get me wrong - I adore Voltron. I grew up on the original and even after years forgetting about it, I still perk up when I hear the word. I LOVED VLD until I utterly hated it and - that's kind of the thing. How many of us hated how VLD ended and yet we're still here, years later, sharing fan art and fic and talking about the show and getting emotional about talk of a remake? Granted, a lot of it is fueled by spite but that doesn't really matter. There's still VLD chatter even after the crash and burn of it YEARS after the fact. I rarely see GoT chatter, its like most people want to pretend it never happened but here we are - worrying about a Voltron remake despite VLDs last seasons.
Somehow, Voltron is one of those rare cases where a BAD version (multiple BAD versions in fact) doesn't seem to put off the sell-ability of the brand name. And as long as Voltron gets buzz and seems to hold a very permanent place in people's nostalgia, Hollywood is going to keep milking it. Honestly, I can't even complain. Whatever movie version comes out it won't be the VLD version. Whatever script they come out with (and we've seen some doozies kicked around over the years) its probably going to be a brand new take on the Voltron concept with some cribbed notes from previous ones. YET ANOTHER remake in a long list of remakes.
If Voltron's track record holds, I'm going to assume its going to be bad and I probably won't make any other judgement call until we're far enough down that well-tread road to have some trailers. I have what I liked from VLD to keep me occupied and I don't think whatever new version that comes up will be a VLD rehash. I think its going to be a 'new idea on an old story' so it should be removed enough from my VLD scars that they won't pull or ache too much. If things go through and we start to get actual trailers though?
Honestly I was pretty burned by how good VLD started and how bad it ended so I'll probably be more tempted to want to sit there with popcorn and watch it all burn -
but you never know. Maybe whoever gets the script by the time the bidding wars are over and everything's been shuffled into rewrites and new directors fifteen times will pull off a Into the Spider-verse and surprise us all. I get why people are worked up. VLD burned us all pretty badly and we’re still emotional about it. They’ve got every right to feel feelings right now. I personally just don't have the emotional energy available to spend this early on in the process with everything too nebulous for me to get worked up either by being bothered or by being excited over. I'm just going to sit on my proverbial porch at this point and watch the traffic accident on the road and once it starts encroaching on my lawn I'll probably get up and decide if I want to wave a stick and yell at it or meander over to see what its doing.