Netflix has a lot of things, but animated stories about robot wars starring actors of color aren't one of them—at least not until now. The upcoming DreamWorks series, "Voltron: Legendary Defender," set to premiere on Netflix on June 10, is a remake of a cartoon from the 1980s that focused on the lives of five pilots as they unite to save the galaxy from the evil entity known as Voltron. Oh, and they ride flying robot lions while they're at it. How cool is that?

As cool as the original cartoon was, it did have some issues: most notably, its main character, Pilot Keith Kogane, was an Asian man voiced by a white man. This is certainly not an isolated incident, even today (see Scarlett Johansson's casting as an Asian cyborg-policewoman in the 2017 adaptation of "Ghost in the Shell"). The American movie industry has a long and problematic history of casting white actors to portray Asian characters (Marlon Brando in "Teahouse of the August Moon" and Mickey Rooney in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" being two particularly racist examples). Asian and Asian-American actors have continually taken aim at Hollywood's casting process. For instance, Aziz Ansari has challenged the stereotypes against South Asian actors in an episode of his Netflix series "Master of None," where he and a friend are pitted against each other because directors are unwilling to hire two actors of color for similar roles.

Others are working to resist whitewashing and stereotypical casting in different ways. Digital strategist William Yu created the now-trending topic #StarringJohnCho, an experiment in which he replaced white male leads in recent A-List movies by Photoshopping in pictures of the actor. “I’m tired of hearing that a role can’t be played by an Asian actor because people ‘just don’t see it,'" said Yu. "#StarringJohnCho is here to literally show you."

This time around, it's clear that "Voltron" is making a concerted effort to actually include actors of color. In the 2016 reboot, lead character Keith is voiced by Asian-American voice actor Steven Yeun. (Not white-washing a leading role? Unheard of!) In addition, Keith's love interest, Princess Allura, is voiced by Kimberly Brooks, a black voice actress who is also active in the film industry.

Of course, there is still a long way to go. Out of six main characters, only two are voiced by actors of color. But having characters of color who are actually voiced by actors of color—as opposed to whitewashing an entire cast—is at least a small step forward.