Voltron Legendary Defender: Is The Paladin’s Handbook Canon?

With any piece of tie-in material, especially for science fiction, the first question on every fan’s mind will inevitably be, “does it count?” That’s a more basic way of saying is the material “canon” to the series and can fans use it to interpret characters or situations in the show differently? Does it hold up with the episodes presented or is it more “B Canon”, nice to have but the producers and writers can disregard it if they want?

That’s been a huge topic of discussion surrounding the Voltron tie-in book, The Paladin’s Handbook. Purporting to be a “guide” to Dreamworks’ Voltron Legendary Defender, fans are already debating whether certain details about the characters within are canonical to the series or not.

Weighing in on the book, co-executive producer Lauren Montgomery and executive producer Joaquim Dos Santos say they haven’t been given a copy to read and thus didn’t check it for any possible errors. Montgomery believes much of the material in the book, “might have come from our bible.”

While that may sound like it’s all canon, Montgomery points out that some of the material in the bible has “evolved a little organically through the process. Not everything is 100% still exactly the same but I don’t think there’s anything that is super far off.” 

So does that mean details like Keith’s birthday, that was given in the book, sharing the same date as Glenn’s death in The Walking Dead (Steven Yeun plays both parts) was unintentional? Montgomery says it was probably not intentional.

“I have a feeling that Keith’s birthday was figured out before we knew Glenn was dead. “ 

Dos Santos jokingly adds that, “if it was intentional we reserve the right to go back on that statement of it not being intentional.”

Montgomery joyfully points out, “it is probably 100% intentional that Lance’s birthday is the same as (writer) Mitch Iverson’s birthday.”

Dos Santos regrets they don’t have time to check every piece of merchandise for the show but they want to focus their attention on, “making sure the show is as good as it can be. We have to be real judicious about where our time’s spent. Stuff might slip through cracks and if it does I’m sure we can answer that question at a panel or something.”

Shamus Kelley is ready to rock and roll with the Voltron force! Follow him on Twitter! 

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