The second season, featuring the "Vehicle Team Voltron", was adapted from the unrelated series Armored Fleet Dairugger XV.

Voltron: Defender of the Universe was the top-rated syndicated children's show for two years during its original run,[2] and it spawned three follow-up series, several comic books, and a line of toys.

The first series was primarily edited from Beast King GoLion (Hyakujū-ō Goraion), and it features a team of five young pilots commanding five robot lions which can be combined to form Voltron.

[10] The series would have centered around three teenage geniuses who each created a humanoid robot that were then modified for battle to combat an alien threat.

Although Matchbox did produce and market toy versions of the three robots (Black Alpha, Blue Beta, Red Gamma) under the "Voltron II" name,[11] the series never actually aired.

The series was met with a mixed response, due to various changes, such as the revamped looks of the Lion Voltron, King Zarkon, and Prince Lotor.

[13] After Voltron: The Third Dimension, World Events Productions went back to the drawing board to develop a more traditionally animated series in an attempt to recapture the spirit of the original.

The series follows the exploits of a group of three young cadets brought together by the original members of the Voltron Force to defend the galaxy against a resurrected Lotor, now ruling the planet Drule after a military coup d'état.

[25] In August 2007, the production entity New Regency entered negotiations with The Mark Gordon Company to adapt Voltron.

[citation needed] Mark's script was described as "a post-apocalyptic tale set in New York City...[in which] five ragtag survivors of an alien attack band together and end up piloting the five lion-shaped robots that combine and form the massive sword-wielding Voltron that helps battle Earth's invaders.

"[24] On August 18, 2008, Relativity Media entered negotiations with New Regency to finance and produce the film, though on a more moderate budget, utilizing cost-saving CGI techniques such as those used in 300.

[29] On July 21, 2011, Atlas Entertainment & Relativity Media announced they would bring Voltron: Defender of the Universe to the big screen.

[37] In March 2022, it was announced that the live-action film was officially back in development with Rawson Marshall Thurber directing and co-writing the screenplay with Ellen Shanman, and produced by Todd Lieberman, David Hoberman, and Bob Koplar.

[39] On November 25, 2024, it was reported that Sterling K. Brown, Rita Ora and John Kim were cast in undisclosed roles.

In Region 1, Voltron was released on DVD in its original broadcast form and remastered, restored, and remixed by New York-based distributor Media Blasters (via their AnimeWorks unit) in eight volumes between September 2006 and July 2009.

The volumes contain approximately fifteen episodes each, along with special features such as interviews with producer and director Franklin Cofod, and various others involved in the original and current productions.

[49][50][51] The Voltron television franchise has produced soundtracks for three of its series which have been released exclusively on the iTunes and the Google Play stores.

[64] The mini-series showed Voltron existing as a single construct created by sorcerers and scientists, resembling a knight.

During its battle with the first Drule Empire, Voltron was tricked by Haggar into landing on a black comet with the gravitational attraction of a singularity.

[citation needed] The original five issue mini-series was adapted as the 2007 motion comic Voltron: Defenders of the Universe - Revelations.

[65] Its sequel, Voltron: Defenders of the Universe - Paradise Lost, adapted the first story arc of the ongoing series, introducing the V-15 and its pilots.

In 2011, Dynamite Entertainment announced plans to publish Voltron comics,[66] while Viz Media's young readers imprint, Viz Kids, announced plans to publish a series of graphic novels called Voltron Force, on which Bian Smith would serve as head writer, and Jacob Chabot and Dario Brizuela would serve as lead artists.

[66][67][68] In September 2015, Dynamite released Voltron: From The Ashes, written by Cullen Bunn with art by Blacky Shepherd.

The company also released 6-inch figures of the Voltron robots that were more affordable, but lacked the detail level of their larger counterparts and could not separate into their component forms.

[74] Trendmasters also released the newer Stealth Voltron and Voltrex variants at various sizes, as well as character action figures to go along with them.

Privateer Press released a Voltron: Defender of the Universe expansion set for their Monsterpocalypse battle miniatures game series in 2010.

[81] In 2023, 4 Hands Brewing Company, based in WEP LLC's hometown of St. Louis, launched a six-part, two-year licensed series of Voltron-themed beers, each "volume" a collaboration with a different craft brewery.

[82] In December 2009, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment announced the first ever Voltron video game would be released on mobile phones in the US, including the iPhone.

The game would have 30 levels and 6 acts, isometric gameplay and gamers will command robot lions to traverse the galaxy and take on King Zarkon's evil droid armies.

[83] In 2011, Voltron: Defender of the Universe, produced by THQ and Behaviour Interactive, was developed for home console play.