Voltron: Legendary Defender executive producers, Lauren Montgomery and Joaquim Dos Santos, sat down with us as SDCC to discuss what’s next for the show.
San Diego Comic-Con has already provided Voltron fans with a ton of awesome content. From the panel, to a new teaser trailer, to Hunk’s food truck, we’ve got plenty to tide us over until season 3 premieres — but now we’ve got even more.
Lauren Montgomery and Joaquim Dos Santos sat down with the press after the panel to talk about everything from cliffhangers to comparing Lotor to a Roman general. Here are some of the highlights.
Cliffhangers galore
Volton has never had a shortage of cliffhangers over its two season run. It wouldn’t seem like much of a stretch to assume that trend would continue, even with a reduced episode run in seasons 3 and 4. However, that might not be the case.
“It’ll probably be a little smaller,” Lauren Montgomery said of the scope of the third season’s ending. “When we do split up the season, we look for the best possible place to split it up. So we’re not splitting it up like, ‘Hey, here’s a two-parter, split in the middle.’ We found ways that we feel like fans will be satisfied at the end of the drop. It just might not be as intense as Zarkon getting destroyed.”
The idea of a low-key ending to season 3 certainly has its appeal. Especially after the tumultuous end to last season, which culminated in Shiro’s mysterious disappearance. Yeah, we’re still not over that — we might give Keith a run for his money on the devastation scale.
Playing switcheroo
Though, speaking of Shiro’s absence, there’s still the question of who will be stepping up into a leadership position in his place. With the Black Lion missing its Paladin, will we be seeing some of the others potentially switching around to accommodate a replacement? Allura, after all, gave a particularly lingering look at the Blue Lion.
“I will say for sure that she looked at the Blue Lion,” Dos Santos teased, but remained tight-lipped otherwise about whether Allura might suit up as a Paladin, harking back to the original series on which Voltron is based.
One thing that was made abundantly clear by both Montgomery and Dos Santos was that there was still a lot of growth to come, from every member of Team Voltron. “I think we’re just trying to show that none of our characters are fully evolved,” Montgomery said.
“Shiro was probably the most fully evolved, and he even still had places to go when he left the show. So, Allura, as amazing of a leader as she seems, she still had huge prejudices and things that were kind of holding her back from being this full-fledged, amazing leader of the Voltron coalition.”
It was that idea of a Voltron coalition, beyond the confines of them being solely the Paladins of Voltron, that had Dos Santos most excited, development wise. “Voltron is a rallying point. That’s an evolution that all the characters are going to have to– it’s another level,” he told us. “Just beyond the Paladins of Voltron, to being leaders of this giant, universe coalition.”
A different kind of space cat
The Voltron Lions aren’t the only cats in space any more. One of Lotor’s Generals, as introduced during the season 3 premiere episode, has her own familiar — with a very specific function. Offering up a twist on the original Voltron series, where Haggar owned a blue cat called Cova.
“You know, our Haggar didn’t have the cat,” Montgomery said. “So, as we’re looking for interesting ways to create new alien races, someone had had the idea of what if we have this character who has a connection to an animal. And that’s how they experience the world.”
But there’s something a little bit darker about this general of Lotor’s, and her experience of the world. Montgomery continued, “She has no eyes, so she can’t see. She sees through this cat of hers.”
Filling a void
Shiro’s absence will leave more than just an empty Lion to find a pilot for — it’ll have a more profound affect on the team. One that, per comments on the panel, Keith will feel most keenly. Dos Santos even remarked that Keith will deal with Shiro’s disappearance in “very weird ways. Very ragey ways.”
“It’s rough. It’s definitely rough up front, because you have this character who’s held them together. Everyone knew they could depend on him, so they felt a certain element of safety, just in that team, because he was there,” Montgomery added. “And the second you take him out, everyone feels vulnerable. They don’t feel like there’s any one person they can count on.”
That missing leadership poses a real challenge for the Paladins. Where there may have been some more levity in earlier seasons, from all of the characters, season 3 will likely see a departure from that. “They’re going to have to each step up in a way to fill that void and just move forward as characters. And leave a little bit of the goofy shenanigans behind and take things a little more seriously,” Montgomery reaffirmed, suggesting that Voltron’s leadership won’t land squarely on any one Paladin’s shoulders.
But that step away from a more goofy nature was especially enticing for Dos Santos, when it came to developing both Hunk and Lance.
“Things definitely take a turn. I think even in this episode you see, and we mentioned it on stage, Hunk actually has fighting prowess now. He’s doing things that old Hunk would have just vomited over the inside of the Lion cockpit for,” he told us. “They’re all taking a step up and, for me, seeing a character like Lance do that is really cool. Because he’s, you know, a lot of people will say, ‘Ahh, you know Lance, he’s kind of like the goofball.’ Nobody really takes him seriously. But we’ll start taking Lance seriously. You start seeing these characters in other lights.”
Goodbye planet Earth
Fans have always been curious about whether the Galra threat might spread to Earth and see the Paladins return home — even briefly. But, when we posed the question, Montgomery and Dos Santos confirmed that Earth just isn’t on the Galra’s radar.
“It’s a little far out of their range right now,” Montgomory said, noting that the distance between the main Galra fleet and Earth are almost at opposite ends of the universe.
“And when you think about it, until there might’ve been the realization that there was a Lion on there, it’s a non-starter,” Dos Santos added. “It’s not a planet that gains them anything. The Galra doesn’t gain any real resources, or technology. So that’s why they’re just left alone.”
“They’re looked upon as very primitive by the Galra,” Montgomery quipped. “Give them another 50,000 years, and then we’ll start talking.”
Building a true Empire
There’s been a lot of talk about how Lotor will be different to his father. The comparison Montgomery and Dos Santos made was that Lotor is like a Roman general. Zarkon was all about the might of the Galra, but Lotor has an alternate method and approach.
“I think it’s the fact that he has this honor system within the structure of a very evil organization,” Dos Santos said. “Really, think about what the Galra is. They sort of tear nations down, but within their ranks there’s the horrible way to do it and there’s an honorable way to do it.”
When you charge in, like Zarkon was doing, Montgomery told us that “you’re going to incite rebellion and people are going to fight back. But if you try and make them feel like they’re part of it, they’re loyal to you.”
Dos Santos continued by comparing the Galran Empire to Rome: “There were nations that got dominated by Rome, but were brought into their ranks and prospered as a result. I think the same thing can happen with the Galra. You can choose not to fight against them, be brought in, and to be part of the Empire — which I think is Lotor’s method. Or, you can stand up against us. We’ll take you one way or the other.”
‘VOLTRON: LEGENDARY DEFENDER’ SEASON 3 PREMIERES ON NETFLIX ON AUGUST 4, 2017
Want more Voltron content to keep you going until then? Check out our recap of the San Diego Comic-Con panel, and stay tuned for our interview with Bex Taylor-Klaus (Pidge) and Tyler Labine (Hunk).
? Voltron: Legendary Defender: Everything we learned about season 3 at SDCC