Henry Cavill to lead live-action Voltron movie

Henry Cavill has joined the cast of 'Voltron'.

The Superman star, 41, is due to lead Amazon MGM Studios' live-action take on the beloved animated sci-fi show ‘Voltron: Defender of the Universe’, which followed five robot lions and their teenage pilots as they attempted to defeat the evil King Zarkon and take over the Galra Empire.

While Cavill’s role and exact plot points about the movie are being kept under wraps, The Hollywood Reporter has said principal photography on the project is due to begin this autumn in Australia.

The film is set to be helmed by ‘Red Notice’ director Rawson Marshall Thurber, who will also produce the movie alongside Todd Lieberman (Hidden Pictures) Bob Koplar (World Events Productions) and David Hoberman (Hobie Films).

The ‘Man of Steel’ actor will also be joined by Daniel Quinn-Toye, who impressed Amazon MGM and the filmmaker with his West End work opposite Tom Holland.

Currently, Cavill is working with Chad Stahelski on the ‘John Wick’ creator’s ‘Highlander’ reboot, which is due to begin filming next year.

The ‘Argylle’ actor - who will be starring as the immortal swordsman Connor MacLeod - previously expressed his excitement about taking on the action role.

He said: "Deep diving into franchise storytelling with all the tools at our disposal, is going to make this an adventure I, and hopefully all of you, shall never forget."

Stahelski also teased he was hoping the first movie would spawn a new cinematic series, much like the original 1986 film which had five sequels and two spin-off TV shows.

Speaking on the 'Happy Sad Confused' podcast, the filmmaker said: "I think we have some very good elements now. The trick is when you have the tagline, 'There can only be one,' you can’t just kill everybody the first time.

"I’ll say it for you first, our story engages a lot of the same characters and stuff like that, but we’ve also brought in elements of all the TV shows, and we’re trying to do a bit of a prequel ... so we have room to grow the property.

"‘Highlander’, I can tell you right now … if we got our s*** together and we pull off the feature, we have ideas for days about how to make the coolest characters and to make that an epic TV show.

"I just think that’s a rich, rich, rich, rich mythology."