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Voltron is an American animated television series franchise that features a team of space explorers who pilot a giant super robot known as "Voltron". Produced by Peter Keefe (executive producer) and Ted Koplar through his production company World Events Productions, Voltron was an adaptation of three Japanese anime television series from Toei Animation. The original television series aired in syndication from September 10, 1984, to November 18, 1985. The first season of Voltron, featuring the "Lion Force Voltron", was adapted from the series Beast King GoLion. The second season, featuring the "Vehicle Team Voltron", was adapted from the unrelated series Armored Fleet Dairugger XV. The proposed third season, featuring the "Gladiator Force Voltron", was to have been based on Lightspeed Electroid Albegas. Due to the extreme popularity of the Lion Force Voltron and the lack of popularity of the Vehicle Team Voltron series, World Events Productions eventually elected against another alternate Voltron, and plans to adapt Albegas were aborted.

Voltron: Defender of the Universe was the top-rated syndicated children's show for two years during its original run, and it spawned three follow-up series, several comic books, and a line of toys. Because of their united universal success as Voltron worldwide, but individually severe failure as separate entities in Japan, the three shows were outright sold to World Events Productions and fully integrated into the Voltron franchise in 2000 (with WEP fully gaining live-action rights in 2010) due to the success of Voltron.

Voltron is still considered the combining mecha anime in mainstream American pop culture, but anime fans love it too. While changes to the anime were not as severe as those made to Robotech, alterations were made to fit GoLion and Dairugger together.

Two series were made, each with individual storylines: Voltron: Defender of the Far Universe (a.k.a. Lion Voltron) and Voltron: Defender of the Near Universe (a.k.a. Vehicle Voltron). Lion Voltron is the original and best-remembered, though Vehicle Voltron has its fans for its somewhat harder sci-fi premise. Later, additional episodes of Lion Voltron were made with all-new animation from Toei, including a special called "Fleet of Doom" featuring both Voltrons.

Episodes revolved around fighting Robeasts in a Monster of the Week format. Some Robeasts were huge Mecha, and others were apparently non-robot aliens that grew to gigantic size when hit with a special energy beam. Both species of Robeasts were always killed by being sliced in half with the Blazing Sword, prompting the same explosion footage episode after episode, as a censored alternative to the sometimes violent deaths in the anime.

In the United States toy market, Lion Voltron was sold under the name "Voltron III", while Vehicle Voltron was sold as "Voltron I". A third Voltron, "Voltron II", was also available. This "Gladiator" Voltron was based on Albegas, which was intended to be used for the third season that never materialized.

Voltron was one of the first television programs to be produced and broadcast in stereophonic sound. Around the time of the show's production, the Federal Communications Commission was in the process of approving stereo broadcasting, yet most programs and cartoons back then were still being broadcast in monaural sound. World Events Productions took notice of this and decided to make the stereo sound of the series a big selling point: almost every store selling stereo television sets in the mid 80's used Voltron as a highlight of what stereo sound could deliver versus mono.

In the year 1998 as the Turn of the Millennium approached, Voltron was revived in the form of Voltron: The Third Dimension, a completely CGI animated continuation of the Lion Voltron storyline, set a few years into the future relative to the original, as there are important changes to the setting, but the character cast stayed mainly the same. This sub-series tends to have a slightly darker, more mature take on its plots. In its second season, Voltron was redesigned as a "Cyber Stealth" model. (How exactly a robot that big could qualify as "stealth" even when painted black is anyone's guess.) There have also been several comic book series based on Lion Voltron, including a series that basically retells the origins of the "Voltron Force" and their discovery of Voltron and more recently, a Robotech/Voltron crossover. In addition, Privateer Press released a Voltron tabletop miniature game based on its Monsterpocalypse ruleset.

In The New '10s, Nickelodeon/Nicktoons brought us Voltron Force, another CGI Lion Voltron Sequel Series that premiered in summer of 2011. It picks up seven years after the original where, after an incident, the lions went crazy and were decommissioned by the Galactic Military. When Lotor comes Back from the Dead, it's up to the old team and the lions, as well as three new trainees, to stop his evil plans.

In 2016, Voltron: Legendary Defender, a Continuity Reboot, was released by Netflix and Dreamworks Animation, reviving the franchise. Because of the re-imagined series, there was talk of DreamWorks owners Universal Pictures doing a Live-Action Adaptation of Voltron, an idea that has for years been stuck in Development Hell due to legal issues. However, DreamWorks lost all rights to the franchise in 2021 which led to WEP getting full rights back from NBCU. By 2024, the film began to move forward at Amazon MGM Studios with the film being directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber from screenplay he co-wrote with Ellen Shanman and Daniel Quinn-Toye and Henry Cavill are set to star in the film.

Meanwhile, select episodes from Lion Voltron, GoLion, Vehicle Voltron, The Third Dimension, and Voltron Force are available to stream from WEP's YouTube channel. Toei has the license to upload the first two episodes of Albegas for viewers on their YouTube channel. Legendary Defender can be streamed in its entirety on Netflix.



Voltron & D.A.G. Material include:

Animated series:
Voltron (1984 – 1985)
Voltron: The Third Dimension (1998 – 2000)
Voltron Force (2011 – 2012)
Voltron: Legendary Defender (2016 – 2018)

Television specials:
Voltron: Fleet of Doom (1986)

Original Toei Anime:
Beast King GoLion (1981 - 1982)
Armored Fleet Dairugger XV (1982 - 1983)
Lightspeed Electroid Albegas (1983 - 1984)



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