By the end of the week, we’ll get to binge-watch the seven-episode third season of Netflix’s frigging amazing (yes, I’m a biased space lion boy) Voltron: Legendary Defender, and while last season’s finale gave the paladin their first decisive victory against Zarkon’s Empire (they blew up his mech and sent him into a coma, after all), he wasn’t the last leader, and the good guys were left without a Shiro to pilot the black lion. Both of these problems are very much at the forefront of the beginning of the season, and are highlighted in the latest season trailer.
Let’s get the bad guy stuff out of the way first. Prince Lotor, son of Emperor Zarkon, is going to be a much larger threat than any of us could have expected. Unlike his father, Lotor has an operatic quality—and is a gifted orator—who seems to want fealty as well as fear from his conquered worlds. His trusted band is made up of half-Galra women, each with different skills and abilities that are useful to his cause. This stands is pretty stark contrast to Zarkon who was pretty much all about subjugating all who weren’t pure-blood Galra. So expect a much more insidious main bad guy this go-round.
Next, we got to talk about the 3 billion pound lion in the room. The Voltron crew aren’t going to get anywhere unless they can find someone to pilot the black lion. Naturally, the easiest course of action here would be to hire internally, as it were, but who? Everyone has a lion…right? Keith seems the most likely leader (given Shiro told him flat-out he wanted him to lead if anything should happen) but Keith is also the one most devoted to Shiro and the least ready to admit that he’s gone, possibly forever. So, Keith—gotta shape the heck up, sir.
We can see just how dire things get—and maybe even how much our heroes overcome—when Voltron: Legendary Defender returns Friday, August 4. All seven episodes streaming on Netflix.
Are you jazzed to see what becomes out of our favorite flying feline pilots? Let us know in the comments below!
Images: DreamWorks, Netflix
Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist. He’s written the animation retrospectives Batman: Reanimated, X-Men: Reanimated, Cowboy Rebop, and Samurai reJacked. Follow him on Twitter!
