Thursday, June 10, 2021

Coming Attractions: He-Man returns, with an all-star voice cast

 After Netflix rebooted She-Ra, Princess of Power into She-Ra & The Princesses of Power, which recently ended a 5 "season", 2 year run, She-Ra's brother is finally stepping back into the spotlight.

Masters of The Universe: Revelation, due to drop next month, brings back He-Man and the Masters, who've now been scattered in a storyline that is a direct sequel to the original 1983-5 Filmation-produced series that featured now-iconic creators as Paul Dini and J. Michael Straczynski.

Filmmaker, part-time actor, and all around geek Kevin Smith is at the helm for the new series.


Casting already announced includes Chris Wood (ex-Supergirl) as He-Man/Prince Adam, Sarah Michelle Gellar as Teela, and, predictably, Mark Hamill as Skeletor, although the villain's original portrayer, Alan Oppenheimer, has demonstrated at conventions he can still carry off the role. Oppenheimer will instead voice Moss-Man. Also on board are Stephen Root (ex-NewsRadio), Kevin Conroy, Lena Headley (as Evil-Lyn), and Diedrich Bader as King Randor and Trap Jaw.

While He-Man and friends have recently appeared in comics produced by DC, including a cross-over with the company's Injustice books, the Eternia storyline moves to Dark Horse with a 5 issue miniseries, written by Smith, and due to debut in time for the debut on Netflix, set for Friday, July 23.

Check the trailer:

 

Maybe Smith can do us all a favor and have Adam & Teela hook up after all this time.......

12 comments:

Steven Dolce said...

A He-Man cartoon for adults, eh? I thought He-Man was created to sell toys to children.

Goldstar said...

He was, but those children are now adults and want to see something from their childhood re-imagined.

No sign of Orko in that trailer. Interesting.

Silverstar said...

@Goldstar: Orko's in it. He's voiced by Griffin Newman.

hobbyfan said...

We'll soon see, guys, if Orko is anything but comedy relief this time.

If I were you, I'd pick up the comic book tie-in, too.

Steven Dolce said...

Why didn't CN pull this off for the 2017 Ben 10 reboot or the 2016 PPG reboot or TTG or Thundercats Roar?

hobbyfan said...

They lost the rights.

Silverstar said...

Because Chumptoon Network (as Hobbyfan likes to call it) is, like Trix cereal, for kids, and as such they aren't interested in any action cartoon fare that's not designed to sell tons o' toys.

CN tried a more serious (by kids' shows standards, anyway) take on Thundercats back in 2011 and it proceeded to sink like a stone, largely because kids weren't buying the tie-in action figures and CN barely promoted it. About a decade before that there was an earlier attempt at a He-Man reboot on CN that went absolutely nowhere.

The last time CN tried hardcore action cartoons was the weekday afternoon Toonami block and later DC Nation on Saturday mornings; the former was besieged with complaints from outraged parents demanding that someone should please think of the children and got moved to Saturday nights and later [adult swim] as a result, and the latter saw its' more serious fare fizzle out and end up giving way to just running Teen Titans GO! for the remainder of its' run.

Ben 10 and PPG have skewed towards 10 and younger to begin with, so they wouldn't really work as hardcore adult reboots. Ben 10 had Alien Force and PPG had that CW pilot, and we all saw how they turned out.

hobbyfan said...

Not only that, but the '11 ThunderCats series was airing in the early evening, and the kiddo's were either doing homework or playing video games.

I will remind that the CW is going to try again with a Powerpuff pilot, but they're not getting the message. PPG was a satire, and CW wants realistic fantasy-drama.

Steven Dolce said...

Luckily, The PPG reboot, the Ben 10 reboot, and Thundercats Roar all ended. Thundercats Roar ended on December 5, 2020 after the first season.

hobbyfan said...

All because they weren't matching the ratings for Teen Titans Go!, which is CN's cash cow.

Steven Dolce said...

And negative reception from audiences.

hobbyfan said...

Not just online, but in the ratings. Got it.