"Masters of the Universe: Revelation/Revolution" (Netflix) News & Discussion Thread (Spoilers)

[RoyalRubble]

Not too many details about this yet, but it looks like a new Masters of the Universe anime series by Kevin Smith is in development for Netflix.

Netflix is working with filmmaker Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats) to create a He-Man limited anime series entitled Masters of the Universe: Revelation. Smith, who'll serve as the project's showrunner and executive producer, has unveiled the new show at the annual Power-Con convention celebrating Eternia's super siblings. Unlike Netflix's She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, which is a reboot of the 1980's Masters of the Universe spinoff featuring He-Man's sister, Revelation will pick up where the original animated show left off.

It will focus on unresolved storylines from the '80s show, featuring familiar characters and what Smith says could be "the final battle between He-Man and Skeletor." Mattel Television is producing the series, while Powerhouse Animation is doing the animation for it. Powerhouse is the same studio behind Netflix's Castlevania, so that's good news if you loved the gothic horror game franchise's adaptation for the streaming platform.

Smith promises that the new He-Man series "is the Masters of the Universe story you always wanted to see as a kid." Unfortunately, it may take a while to confirm if that's truly the case: Netflix has yet to announce when Revelation will be available for streaming.

 

[Fone Bone]

Interesting. I hated the old show, even as a kid so I'm wondering how this would work.

 

[Dragnatek]

Interesting. I hated the old show, even as a kid so I'm wondering how this would work.

Agreed. I grew up with eighties cartoons but most of them are not that good.

Kevin Smith and the studio that made the castlevania show? Are we talking a dark he-man story? Like the He-man equivalent of G.I. Joe Resolute? I don't know if I want that.

 

[SweetShop209]

Tim Sheridan and Eric Carrasco are among those working in the series.

 

[The Overlord]

Interesting. I hated the old show, even as a kid so I'm wondering how this would work.

Maybe this will take the back story of the old show, but have more modern story telling?

Also how will this show be anime, will Teela be really fan servicey, will there a chibi Skeletor?

Also if this is sequel to the 1983 cartoon, how will they handle Skeletor? He was written as a goofball in that cartoon, but is often presented as a psychopathic monster in other adaptions:

Masters of the Universe / Monster - TV Tropes

Masters of the Universe is a franchise that has been around since the 1980s, and He-Man and She-Ra have fought numerous foes. These are the worst villains to menace Eternia and Etheria. Unless noted, works in each folder are by publication date/ …

tvtropes.org

Including in comic books that ran near or at the same time as the 1983 cartoon.

 

[TheVileOne]

I'm curious to see what a continuation of the 1980s series means for a cartoon made in 2019-2020. For now, I'm cautiously optimistic. There are a lot of things I like about the 1980s cartoon. The iconography, the designs, the characters. A lot of the writing and dialogue, and the animation, don't really hold up all that well.

If Powerhouse is doing this, the animation and artwork should be fairly good. But I hope this isn't some modern political self-parody or ironic version. I don't want to see the Adult Swim parody take on Masters of the Universe.

It's probably for the best this is not connected to She-Ra. They can exist separately and be their own thing.

 

[StellaMagic]

I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Frontier]

This was not the He-Man revival I was expecting, let alone that Kevin Smith would be overseeing it .

I expect this will be like other 80's "revivals" that are aimed at older audiences and treat the source material more seriously.

I wonder if it's too much to hope for Cam Clarke to reprise He-Man...

I'm curious to see what a continuation of the 1980s series means for a cartoon made in 2019-2020. For now, I'm cautiously optimistic. There are a lot of things I like about the 1980s cartoon. The iconography, the designs, the characters. A lot of the writing and dialogue, and the animation, don't really hold up all that well.

I'm curious to see how it will compare to the 2002 revival, but I imagine this will be much more mature at least in so far as the kind of explicit content it can show .

It's probably for the best this is not connected to She-Ra. They can exist separately and be their own thing.

With the way they approached the She-Ra reboot, I was always expecting a He-Man equivalent in one form or another would have to be very different from what they did with She-Ra.

 

[Terror of Death]

Since it's an anime series I'm going to assume its will be a darker and grittier interpretation. Maybe not TV-MA like Castlevania but it will at least be TV-14 content wise.

I've only seen bits and pieces of the original series and 2002 reboot so I'll try and make an effort to check them out in full before the netflix series premieres.

 

[SweetShop209]

I wonder if it's too much to hope for Cam Clarke to reprise He-Man...

He did reprise his role as Leonardo for the 2012 TMNT cartoon even when he's in his late 50s, so he could reprise the role. If not, he could still voice a character, much like how Casey Kasem was in the 2006 and 2010 Scooby cartoons despite not voicing Shaggy in them.

 

[The Overlord]

This was not the He-Man revival I was expecting, let alone that Kevin Smith would be overseeing it .

I expect this will be like other 80's "revivals" that are aimed at older audiences and treat the source material more seriously.

I wonder if it's too much to hope for Cam Clarke to reprise He-Man...

I'm curious to see how it will compare to the 2002 revival, but I imagine this will be much more mature at least in so far as the kind of explicit content it can show .

With the way they approached the She-Ra reboot, I was always expecting a He-Man equivalent in one form or another would have to be very different from what they did with She-Ra.

The 2002 cartoon got away with a lot for a kids cartoon. King Hiss was eating people, but they cut away at the right time to make it less gruesome.

Maybe King Hiss will still eat people, but this cartoon will make it more gruesome.

I do worry that Kevin Smith may go too over the top, given his body of work.

 

[TargetmasterJoe]

Literally wasn’t expecting this to happen.

I thought they’d save He-Man's big comeback for the live-action movie that should be releasing in 2021, but hey, I ain’t complaining!

Interesting how DreamWorks isn’t involved since they kinda have dibs on the original MOTU cartoon, but I guess it doesn’t matter?

 

[TheGreatOne2]

Netflix calllng this an anime series is wrong since this is american animated series not japanese

There is 0 chance of a crossover due to 2 different animation studios workikng on it:

She-Ra (Dreamworks Animation)

He-Man (Powerhouse animation)

I wonder if John Erwin will be back as He-man and Alan Oppenheimer as Skeletor

 

[Fone Bone]

Agreed. I grew up with eighties cartoons but most of them are not that good.

While it's true 80's shows weren't good, some of them excited me at the time. Transformers was utter dreck in hindsight, but it was exciting dreck as a kid. Same with ThunderCats. He-Man always bored me as a kid. It even had a boring theme song. In the 1980's! How unforgivable is that?

 

[The Overlord]

While it's true 80's shows weren't good, some of them excited me at the time. Transformers was utter dreck in hindsight, but it was exciting dreck as a kid. Same with ThunderCats. He-Man always bored me as a kid. It even had a boring theme song. In the 1980's! How unforgivable is that?

Well Flimation had less money then other studios at the time, so the animation was stiffer and the voice cast was tiny for their shows.

This show would have a higher budget, I would just worry how over the top Kevin Smith would make this show given his body of work.

 

[Dragnatek]

While it's true 80's shows weren't good, some of them excited me at the time. Transformers was utter dreck in hindsight, but it was exciting dreck as a kid. Same with ThunderCats. He-Man always bored me as a kid. It even had a boring theme song. In the 1980's! How unforgivable is that?

For me it was Thundercats I couldn't get into even as a kid. It was the voice acting.

 

[Fone Bone]

ThunderCats had an awesome theme song and the pacing was quick (at least it was for that era). He-Man just plodded along. I don't think it was entirely the limited animation although that definitely didn't help.

 

[Frontier]

Netflix calllng this an anime series is wrong since this is american animated series not japanese

Well, considering they had someone make an anime documentary after some lady watched Castlevania and mistakenly assumed it was anime...they probably don't care for the difference .

I wonder if John Erwin will be back as He-man and Alan Oppenheimer as Skeletor

I'm kind of pulling for Cam Clarke and Brian Dobson myself .

 

[SweetShop209]

Mattel, Netflix team up for He-Man reboot

Anime series Masters of the Universe: Revelation is the first of Mattel Television's new slate of 22 animated and live-action TV shows.

kidscreen.com

Given how Kidscreen is reporting on this, and they've never reported on any PG-13 material, it won't go the route of something like GI Resolute and target only older fans and adults. It'll be as much for kids today as it was for those who grew up with the series.

 

[Takao]

Netflix calllng this an anime series is wrong since this is american animated series not japanese

When Netflix calls a western cartoon anime, that's just marketing speak for it's an adult series that isn't a comedy.

I wonder if John Erwin will be back as He-man and Alan Oppenheimer as Skeletor

I doubt it. Both are in their 80s and might not be physically capable of doing those voices anymore. I wouldn't be surprised if they get cameos, but Cam Clarke is probably the only prior franchise actor that has a shot at reprisal. He's not elderly, nor has he committed the Netflix sin of being Canadian.