Kevin Smith is busy. On top of being the ever-stoked king of comic book and nerd culture, the filmmaker and wit has his Jay and Silent Bob reboot — entitled Jay and Silent Bob Reboot — out in October. On Sunday he revealed another project: He’s rebooting He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, this time as an anime show for Netflix.
As per Deadline, Smith broke the news about the show, to be called Masters of the Universe: Revelations, at Power-Con in Anaheim, telling the audience he’s working on an original story based on the Mattel’s popular He-Man character — a ripped, sword-wielding stud with a blonde Prince Valiant ’do who was born as an action figure, with a show created primarily to drive sales. On the show, our hero battled the evil Skeletor in a fantasy realm named Eternia.
In 1987 He-Man came to the big screen, albeit via the cut-rate production company Golan-Globus, who quickly transplanted its heroes and villains from their presumably expensive-to-shoot world and into modern-day suburban New Jersey. Entitled simply Masters of the Universe, and starring Dolph Lundgren and Courteney Cox, it did not recoup its slender budget.
There have been attempts over the last handful of years to do a proper big-screen He-Man blockbuster, but so far a Netflix anime limited series executive produced by Kevin Smith appears to be the best that can be done thus far. On Sunday Smith was so pumped to break the news that he gladly pun-ished his audience.
“I’m Eternia-ly grateful to Mattel TV and Netflix for entrusting me with not only the secrets of Grayskull, but also their entire Universe,” Smith told the crowd. “In Revelation, we pick up right where the classic era left off to tell an epic tale of what may be the final battle between He-Man and Skeletor! Brought to life with the most metal character designs Powerhouse Animation can contain in the frame, this is the Masters of the Universe story you always wanted to see as a kid!”
When it drops, Masters of the Universe: Revelation will join another animated Mattel show, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, revolving around Mattel’s female He-Man analogue.
(Via Deadline)
