Vital Thrills got a chance to chat with showrunner/executive producer Kevin Smith and the cast of the Netflix series Masters of the Universe: Revelation, including Chris Wood (Prince Adam / He-Man), Sarah Michelle Gellar (Teela), Tiffany Smith (Andra), Tony Todd (Scare Glow).
The highly-anticipated series will premiere on the streaming service on July 23, 2021, and will bring the return of the He-Man and Teela you know and love with a whole lot of surprises.
Netflix’s Masters of the Universe is a sequel to the animated He-Man series of the 1980s. Chris Wood was really excited to get to voice the role of Prince Adam/He-Man in the new series.
He said, “I was a fan of the toys as a kid. I played with a lot of He-Man toys, so I’ve been practicing ‘I have the power’ my whole life.
He added: “But I think that’s the most exciting part about the show… that it really is not a sequel, it’s not a reboot, it’s a continuation of the original series, but realized in 2021, and a show that was just for a little boy… it doesn’t even fit in our world now.
“And I think they sort of perfectly expressed that and fleshed out characters that we didn’t really get to know before, and by the way, we never even saw He-Man and Skeletor fight in the original show!”
Sarah Michelle Gellar told us that it was about the journey for her, in terms of her character, Teela, and what happened to her. “Growing up, I mean, obviously, I was of the age of He-Man, but it was not something that I really could relate to and made me feel like I was a part of that world. It was very sort of laser-focused on young boys.”
Gellar continued, “And I think what Kevin – what everyone’s done so magically with the story is brought it to everybody. It doesn’t matter, age, race, any of it. There’s a little bit of humanity and something that you can relate to in each of the characters.”
Tiffany Smith voices Andra, a new character who is a close friend of Teela’s and a warrior. She said that she didn’t know what she was auditioning for and got to say the line as well.
She didn’t have a sword to use for the audition, “…so the only thing I could use – I pulled my lightsaber off the wall… I was like, either they’re gonna think this girl’s awesome, or they’re going to be like, ‘this girl is really dorky.'”
Horror legend Tony Todd voices Scare Glow, a character that was introduced late in the life of the series in toy form and never got a chance to be in the show. Todd said he wanted to bring a “sense of fun, a sense of joy” to the character. “The thing about playing villains is you don’t want to hit the villainy on the head too hard.”
“Most villains think they are completely correct,” he continued. “Whether they’re the Dark side, whether they’re the Fallen, whether they’re Scare Glow, they are completely correct, and you are in their way, so you’re wasting their time. “
Kevin Smith told us that it was important to him that this was the version of the characters he knew from when he was a kid. “What what Nicole [Stevenson, who created the new She-Ra series for Netflix] did to She-Ra, I would not have been that person. I did not invent it. I’m not creative, and I can’t take a concept and turn it into something cool and new, but they asked me just to continue the story.
“They liked the idea that we were going to spiritually sequel-ize the old, the classic series. So I was like wait, you just want to keep it going and maybe grow it up a little bit, I was like I’m your guy. I can totally do that. I’ve done that in comic books. I think I could pull that off.”
Smith told us that he was going to take characters from the original series like Orko, who was, as he said, “basically hated like 75 percent of the audience,” and make us feel something about the character. We’ve seen the series, and you definitely will.
Smith really wanted this to be a show for more than one generation. He said, “As we were writing this, we’re like, somebody is going to be sitting down with their kid and watching this, and they are going to be breathlessly retelling every element of the Masters of the Universe lore that they could possibly remember, and they remember it all, because it was built into their DNA at a time when they were kids, and that s*** takes hold.
“So we knew we were making it for ya fanservice audience. We also knew they were bringing their kids with them, and… we don’t want kids to be like f***, what is this? We want the kids to be engaged because their parents are engaged, and also because hopefully, they find the story interesting stuff.”
Part 1 (5 episodes) of the Mattel Television and Netflix series Masters of the Universe: Revelation and the aftershow special, Revelations: The Masters of the Universe Revelation Aftershow, will premiere on Friday, July 23.
The war for Eternia culminates in Masters of the Universe: Revelation, an innovative and action-packed animated series that picks up where the iconic characters left off decades ago.
After a cataclysmic battle between He-Man and Skeletor, Eternia is fractured, and the Guardians of Grayskull are scattered.
After decades of secrets tore them apart, it’s up to Teela to reunite the broken band of heroes and solve the mystery of the missing Sword of Power in a race against time to restore Eternia and prevent the end of the universe.
The voice cast includes Mark Hamill as Skeletor, Lena Headey as Evil-Lyn, Chris Wood as Prince Adam / He-Man, Sarah Michelle Gellar as Teela, Liam Cunningham as Man-At-Arms, and Stephen Root as Cringer.
Diedrich Bader plays King Randor / Trap Jaw, Griffin Newman is Orko, Tiffany Smith portrays Andra, Henry Rollins plays Tri-Klops, Alan Oppenheimer (original Skeletor) is Moss Man, and Susan Eisenberg plays Sorceress.
The cast also includes Alicia Silverstone as Queen Marlena, Justin Long as Roboto, Jason Mewes as Stinkor, Phil LaMarr as He-Ro, Tony Todd as Scare Glow, Cree Summer as Priestess, Kevin Michael Richardson as Beast Man, Kevin Conroy as Mer-Man, Dennis Haysbert as King Grayskull, Adam Gifford as Vikor, and Jay Tavare Wundar.
Susan Corbin (He-Man and the Masters of the Universe) produces the series. The executive producers are Frederic Soulie (He-Man and the Masters of the Universe), Adam Bonnett (Descendants), Christopher Keenan (Justice League, Batman Beyond), and Rob David (He-Man and the Masters of the Universe).
The writers include Marc Bernardin (Castle Rock, Alphas), Eric Carrasco (Supergirl), Diya Mishra (Magic the Gathering), and Tim Sheridan (Reign of the Supermen).
The composer is Bear McCreary (The Walking Dead, Battlestar Galactica, Outlander).
Produced by Mattel Television, the animation for the series was created by Powerhouse Animation (Castlevania).
Jenna Busch has written and spoken about movies, TV, video games, and comics all over the Internet for over 15 years, co-hosted a series with Stan Lee, appeared on multiple episodes of “Tabletop,” written comic books, and is a contributing author for the 13 books in the “PsychGeeks” series including “Star Wars Psychology.” She founded the site Legion of Leia and hosted the “Legion” podcast.