Zarkon’s defeat, however temporary, at the end of season 2, was very unexpected. With Lotor making his debut as the big-bad in season 3, how will his approach as an antagonist differ from his father’s? Zarkon became very single minded in his obsession over Voltron, so will Lotor be able to separate that from the Galran Empire’s ultimate goal?
JDS: I think so. Without giving too much away, how Lotor differs from Zarkon, I think it’s safe to say that they would have different approaches. He doesn’t necessarily have the same tie that his father did to the Black Lion. Like you said, the Black Lion almost became this pure obsession at all other costs, at the risk of [Zarkon’s] entire Empire, he was going after the Black Lion. So I think Lotor has a more measured approach.
LM: And it’s just interesting to play with different approaches with villains. We’ve done the Zarkon thing and we took him down his road. And you bring in another villain and you don’t want to do the same thing over again. We’re always looking for what’s interesting and different about this person’s approach. So, definitely look forward to Lotor doing things differently.
One thing I loved in season 2 was Shiro and Keith’s friendship being a key driving force throughout. It’s been evident since the first episode that not only they, but also Hunk and Lance, have an incredibly close friendship. Will we ever discover how those friendships were originally forged?
JDS: For us, we’re like origin story freaks. We would have loved to just do an origin story throughout the entire first episode and season. But then we wouldn’t have much regular story to tell if that were the case.
LM: The problem we run into is the show is called Voltron. But if you focus too much on origin stories, Voltron wasn’t around back then. So we can hint little bits here and there, but a lot of our story is in the present and being tackled as we see it.
JDS: But we do absolutely love all that stuff. So we would love to explore more of it. And again, we’ll never confirm nor deny whether we do.
Pidge also made a significant breakthrough in the search for their family when they discovered that Matt had been liberated from a Galra prison ship. Could a potential reunion soon be on the cards as more alliances are forged with Voltron?
LM: That’s the idea. The interesting thing is that he’s no longer with the Galra. But now she doesn’t necessarily know where he is.
JDS: It’s almost like a worse situation.
LM: She’s like, ‘I know he’s not with [the Galra], which is good, but I have no idea where he ended up.’ But as they go out and explore this galaxy, there’s definitely more leads that she can come across. And ultimately, I think, we all wanna see her get back with her family. And it’s just a matter of when does that happen within our story. We’ll find out.
JDS: And in what way does that happen. What form does that take. Reunions aren’t always the greatest things in the world, so I think everything’s kind of on the table with that stuff. But again, going back to what we’ve been saying from the beginning. We love the fact that we can tell a giant serialized storyline because we’ve been able to pepper in all this stuff with Pidge throughout the body of the series. I think we’re hoping to do that with the other characters as well.
With Shiro being, presumably, AWOL heading into the next season, do you see Keith taking up the leadership mantle as Shiro wanted — or do you think the other Paladins may also step up in Shiro’s absence?
LM: It’s something that we’ve tried to do throughout the show. Which was that Voltron is ultimately the essence of teamwork. In the beginning, you clearly had Shiro who kind of knew what was going on. He was more of the strategist of all of them. Like the natural born leader. And you have a bunch of these other kids who kind of don’t really know what they’re doing but they’re along for the ride. We’ve managed to evolve them all to the point where they may not be perfect, they may not be at Shiro’s level yet, but they’ve definitely stepped up to a certain place. And so with Shiro gone, they all need to come together to fill that gap.
One thing that we’ve always tried to make clear is that it’s not really up to the Paladin or any person to give or hand down leadership of Voltron. So even if Shiro’s saying it and telling Keith he believes in him, ultimately it’s not really his choice. The Lion will have to accept Keith. Which we saw happen in that episode. But beyond that, teamwork is the core of Voltron. So even though you have someone like Shiro who seemingly is the leader, it’s still very much a team effort.
JDS: And I think it’s safe to say Shiro absolutely sees the potential in Keith. But none of our characters are perfect. Keith amongst them has got issues, on top of issues, behind issues. So he’s got a giant, sort of, I don’t want to say character flaws, but he’s got to make breakthroughs before he can step up. There’s just a long way to go from a character perspective for a lot of our guys. Keith amongst them.
Speaking of overcoming obstacles, toward the tail end of season 2, you touched briefly on the idea of Lance’s insecurities when it came to his place within the team. Is that an arc you’re hoping to develop over the course of season 3?
JDS: I think it’s an arc we’re hoping to develop period. Lance, he’s my personal favorite, and I think what’s really cool about him is that he got pigeonholed really, really early on as the goofball, and there’s so many more layers to that character. I think he’s been playing the longest of all the characters.
Hunk, in season 1, had a giant character moment where he stepped up to the plate. All this stuff with protecting the Balmera and understanding that Voltron means more to the universe. I think Lance has a way longer arc. Obviously, Pidge, Keith, and Shiro all have really strong through lines, but Lance has the most subtle through line.
LM: And it was interesting early on, when season 1 came out, I saw in the beginning there was a lot of people who were kind of put off by Lance. Because of all of his comments and his goofiness. But it seems as time went on, people started to figure out and see where it was coming from. Which was really just a place of insecurity.
He created this whole rivalry with Keith. Keith, he may have issues, but he’s not super concerned with what Lance thinks about him. But Lance is very concerned with how he looks to everyone, and how he fits into this world. And I think people started to pick up on who Lance was, and he wasn’t actually all bravado. It was all just a put on. Just a show.
And even down to the Blue Lion accepting him, we never really got to hear what the Blue Lion would look for in a pilot. And some have said, oh, it’s the friendly Lion, but really the Blue Lion is kind of like the mother Lion. She looks for potential in a new pilot. Something to nurture and foster. And I think she saw that in Lance. She saw someone who needed confirmation that they were valuable to this team. Even though they didn’t believe it in themselves.
And Lance, of course, takes advantage of that and is like, ‘Look, I’m the greatest. I’ve got the first Lion, woo-hoo.’ But it’s all just a massive put-on for him. So I think it’s something that may not have been hit hard over the head in season 1, but was kind of there. And then we just touched on it on more of a level in season 2, and that’ll ultimately be something that he needs to deal with moving forward.
JDS: It’s definitely his strongest through line. It’s exciting to try to plan for that. To see people come to a lot of those realizations organically. Because it was nothing that we were hitting too overtly on the head, until we got to Beta Traz. And it was like, oh man, he’s really dealing with some stuff here.
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