Newcomer Daniel Quinn-Toye, an actor who has no film credit to his name, landed the lead role in VoltronAmazon MGM's big-budget live-action film based on the mecha anime.
Rawson Marshall Thurber, the director behind the Netflix success Red warningwill direct the adaptation, which will film this fall in Australia.
Producers are Todd Lieberman via Hidden Pictures, Bob Koplar and Thurber of World Events Productions and David Hoberman of Hobie Films.
Voltron is based on the Japanese science fiction series Beast King GoLion AND Kikou Kantai Dairugger XV. World Events edited and dubbed the series as a syndicated show, naming it Voltron: defender of the universewhich took place in the mid-1980s. The premise centered on five young pilots of a battalion called Robot Lions, vehicles that come together to form a mega robot known as Voltron.
Plot details for the new version are unclear. Thurber wrote the screenplay with Ellen Shanman. What is clear is the potential the role has to catapult the young actor onto casting agents' and producers' shortlists.
Amazon, Thurber and the producers conducted an extensive search for male and female leads, holding auditions in early and mid-September. Quinn-Toye was one of four to make the short list for the male lead. (The female role, which tested three actresses, remains up for grabs.)
Although he has no film credits, Quinn-Toye has appeared on television, earning a credit on the BBC Three series Bad adults. He was also an extra in an episode of Foreigner.
But it was his stage work that impressed filmmakers. The 21-year-old actor, who attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and the Dance School of Scotland, was Tom Holland's replacement in the Spider-Man actor's spectacular return to the world of theater last spring in West End. production of Romeo and Juliet. Quinn-Toye also made her professional production debut with the role of Paris, a suitor of Juliet. He also appeared in several theater plays staged by LAMDA.
Quinn-Toye is represented by Florence Rose at Independent Talent Group and attorney Daniel Passman.