The beloved animated series Voltron: Legendary Defender will sadly be removed from Netflix later this coming December, and the team behind the series production responds to the removal of the original series. According to Comicbook, the popular animated sci-fi series has raised a massive fandom throughout its eight seasons, with the final season ending back in 2018.The series focuses on a group of space cadets that have chosen to pilot robot lions in order to save the galaxy. The voices behind the characters consisted of Josh Keaton (Hercules) as Shiro, Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead) as Keith, Jeremy Shada (Dragons: The Nine Realms) as Lance, Bex Taylor-Klaus (The Killing) as Pidge, Tyler Labine (Monster University) as Hunk and Kimberly Brooks (Arcane) as Allura.

According to Comicbook, an official statement from the team was posted on the Voltron Facebook page, which stated, “Voltron: Legendary Defender was not produced by Netflix. It was produced by DreamWorks Animation and licensed to Netflix. That license is expiring.” Secondly, they noted the ongoing discussions between the two parties, “There is a chance the license gets renewed, those discussions are ongoing between all parties involved.” However, the statement notes that there is hope to watch elsewhere: “If the license does not get renewed, DreamWorks is free to license VLD to another streaming platform.”

According to Comicbook, the decision behind why the series is being removed is because the original series was not produced by Netflix, but rather Dreamworks and was licensed by it, but the said license has now expired. Additionally, questions are raised about how this will affect the live-action Voltron film that Amazon Studios is working on, which recently cast Henry Cavill (The Witcher) in an undisclosed role. Seasons one to six of the animated series are available to stream on Prime Video, but the final two seasons pose a challenge if they are removed from Netflix.