UPDATE: The Wrap is now reporting that Alba Baptista, Samson Kayo and Tharanya Tharan have also joined the cast.
We recently learned that Man of Steel and The Witcher star Henry Cavill will play the lead in Amazon MGM Studios’ live-action Voltron movie, and the project has now added three new cast members.
THR (via AnimeMojo.com) reports that Sterling K. Brown, Rita Ora and John Kim are set to join the production is undisclosed roles.
Newcomer Daniel Quinn-Toye, who previously appeared in Badults and served as Tom Holland’s understudy in Romeo & Juliet on the West End this spring, is also on board.
We don't have details on any of the characters, but scooper MTTSH recently reported that Brown was in talks to play the villain last week. There's a decent chance the others will play four of the five Voltron pilots.
Plot details are also under wraps, but Thurber did share the following with fans during VoltCon in Indianapolis last month.
“I want to make sure that we stay true to the heart and the spirit of Voltron. In this film, we’re going to be introducing an entirely new generation of pilots. We’ve reimagined Voltron for the live-action world, but we’re going to stay true to…those iconic elements that you love, that I love.”
Brown recently earned an Oscar nomination for his performance opposite Jeffrey Wright in American Fiction. He is set to star in and executive produce a new Hulu drama series, Paradise, and will soon begin production on Elegance Bratton’s By Any Means with Mark Wahlberg.
Ora is best-known as a singer-songwriter, kicking off her acting career with appearances in the Fifty Shades of Grey franchise, Detective Pikachu, and Disney’s Descendants: The Rise of Red.
Kim can currently be seen in Prime Video’s Cruel Intentions, and his other credits include Apple TV+'s The Last Thing He Told Me, The CW’s Nancy Drew, and TNT’s The Librarians.
Voltron is being helmed by Red Notice director Rawson Marshall Thurber, and is based on the Japanese sci-fi show Beast King GoLion and Kikou Kantai Dairugger XV. World Events would later edit and dub the series as a syndicated show, naming it Voltron: Defender of the Universe, which ran in the mid '80s. The property was revived for a new Netflix series titled Voltron: Legendary Defender in 2016.
The story focused on five young pilots in a battalion named the Robot Lions, which were giant vehicles that join together to form an even bigger mega-robot known as Voltron.
In addition to Netflix's Red Notice, Thurber has directed Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, We're the Millers, Central Intelligence, and Skyscraper. He also penned the script for Voltron with Ellen Shanman.
Producers are Todd Lieberman via Hidden Pictures, World Events Productions’ Bob Koplar, Thurber and Hobie Films’ David Hoberman.
What do you make of this casting news? Be sure to drop us a comment down below.
"Five unsuspecting teenagers, transported from Earth into the middle of a sprawling intergalactic war, become pilots for five robotic lions in the battle to protect the universe from evil. Only through the true power of teamwork can they unite to form the mighty warrior known as Voltron."