Master Of The Universe: Kevin Smith Rebuilt Grayskull For A New Generation
Smith has the power!
That's right. The king of all things geeky, Kevin Smith made a home run in the entertainment game as the showrunner for the newest addition to the Masters of the Universe franchise, Masters of the Universe: Revelations. Picking up right where the story left off in the classic 80's television series, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, the first season of the new, adult targeted series was released onto Netflix's catalogue July 23rd to rave reviews.
The series features He-Man, Teela and, the rest of the iconic game as they go toe to toe with infamous baddies Skeletor and Evil-Lyn, fighting to save the universe from the claws of injustice.
The most recent screen adaptation of the franchise was Dreamwork Animations colorful animated series She-Ra and the Princess of Power, which first aired on Netflix in 2018. While the show has garner a great deal of positive recognition, even receiving a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Kids and Family Programming for it's LGBTQ+ representation, fans wanted more. There was especially a market for older fans who had been following the franchise since the Mattel brand when the first Masters of the Universe toys hit the shelves in 1981.
Netflix headed to their call and announced that two Masters of the Universe titles were in the works back in December 2018. One was a CGI movie that the streaming service is teaming up with Mattel Television to produce. The latter is what we now know as the Kevin Smith lead anime inspired series with a more mature tone than its legendary predecessors.
Smith himself brought the project to fans' attention during a panel at the 2019 Power Con.
"I’m Eternia-ly grateful to Mattel TV and Netflix for entrusting me with not only the secrets of Grayskull," the showrunner boasts to his audience, "but also their entire Universe. 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!"
As Smith took the role of executive producer and showrunner, the writer's room was manned by a collection of industry vets who know their way around crafting adventurous, action packed shows: Diya Mishra, Eric Carrasco and Marc Bernardin Tim Sheridan.
In the eyes of critics, the first season of Masters of the Universe: Revelations was a stunning success. With a studded cast of Chris Woods voicing the leading [He] man, Sarah Michelle Glover taking on the role of his Captain of the Royal Guard, Teela, and Mark Hamil playing Skeletor, the vocal performances were one of the most praised aspects of the show by television critics across the board.
But they gave the biggest hand to Smith's role in spearheading this ambitious reboot.
Zaki Hasan writes in Datebook, "Smith did such a good enough job paying homage to the Eternian mythology we know, while also delving into new, unseen directions, that it’s worth hanging in to see how he’ll wrap things up."
Many were immediately drawn to how faithful the series stayed to the lore of its source material while still putting its own fresh spin on these prolific characters.
"Masters of the Universe: Revelation is less about winning over newbies than about tapping into old fans’ cherished memories of childhood days gone by," Nick Schager says in his review for The Daily Beast, "In that respect, it accomplishes its mission—and there is, to be sure, some chance that Powerhouse’s sterling animation will alone convince a few He-Man novices to take the plunge. Mostly, though, the ability to give the faithful what they crave is this venture’s true power."
While most critics saw the first five episodes as a great start to what could unfold into an even greater series, a rather vocal segment of the fandom disagreed. What was it that turned them off to the show, you might ask. Well, a huge objection to Smith's continuation of the franchise was that it just didn't feature enough He-Man within the span of the five episodes. But there's a huge conception cast upon the show by fans that the storyline was too pandering, or for a lack of better terms, woke.
"It was kind of an homage to every version of ‘Masters of the Universe.’ So I was like, ‘When this comes out, fans are going to lose their s–t!’" Smith explains in an interview with the New York Post And I was half-right. I’ve watched fandoms get mad at creators before like Rian Johnson on ‘The Last Jedi.’ And heading into this I was like, ‘I’m not going to do that!’ And yet, here we stand. So, you never know."
Just like Johnson, who got slammed from Star Wars fans for The Last Jedi showcasing a female protagonist front and center, Smith received a great deal of backlash for Masters of the Universe: Revelations focusing more on Teela than it did He-Man.
"I know there’s some people that are like, ‘Hey, man, this show’s woke'," Smith goes on to defend his work in an interview with Variety, "I’m like, all right, great, then so was the original cartoon we’re sequel-izing. Go watch it again. There are girls in every episode. Deal with it."
Sources: Entertainment Weekly, Slate, New York Post, Variety
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