Summary
- Masters of the Universe: Revolution features much more He-Man than its predecessor, addressing fans’ concerns about sidelining the character.
- The story explores Prince Adam’s struggle between responsibility and personal desires, while Teela plays a pivotal role in thwarting the looming menace of the Horde Empire.
- Despite initial backlash, showrunner Kevin Smith stands by his decision to temporarily remove He-Man, emphasizing that the show still respects the franchise’s lore and is a continuation rather than a reinvention.
When Masters of the Universe: Revelation debuted in July 2021, bringing Kevin Smith’s highly anticipated He-Man reboot to Netflix, it did the one thing guaranteed to stir up the fan base. For the majority of its 10-episode run, the series effectively sidelined its central muscleman, and placed the character of Teela at the heart of the story. Now, Smith is back with his follow-up, Masters of The Universe: Revolution, and this time he is definitely bringing much more He-Man to the party.
Speaking to SFX magazine ahead of Friday’s premiere, Smith and executive producer Ted Biaselli addressed the reactions to the previous season’s controversial decision to take He-Man out of the picture, with Biaselli explaining that this is definitely not the case this time around. He said:
“This is a story that’s going to explore what it means to be He-Man when a new responsibility falls on Adam. I think it’s really interesting to explore what it’s like when, as an adult, you know what you want to do, and your parents also have expectations for you. How do you reconcile with that? We do it with an eye towards making sure fans know that He-Man is in three-and-a-half or four out of the five episodes. He is He-Man in the show!”
Revolution picks up directly from the end of Revelation, which saw the arrival of Hordak, and set up a battle between He-Man and a technologically enhanced Skeletor. Naturally, this means that Eternia is under threat from its power-hungry villain one again, and there is only one person who can stop him…well with a little help from his friends, as you would expect. Beyond this battle, Prince Adam faces a personal crossroads: the choice between sovereignty and heroism, the scepter or the sword.
Meanwhile, Teela embarks on her quest, diving into the mysteries of Snake Magic in a bid to reconstruct a magical realm. Her journey is pivotal to thwarting the looming menace of the Horde Empire, led by the formidable Hordak.
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Kevin Smith Does Not Regret Dropping He-Man in Revelation
Despite the initial backlash over He-Man’s diminished role in Revelation, the team behind the series, including Biaselli, executive producer Rob David, and showrunner Kevin Smith, have taken the criticism and applied it to this latest outing for the Masters of the Universe. That doesn’t mean that Smith is sorry for pushing He-Man aside to tell the story he wanted to tell previously. He said:
“I know there are people that went after Revelation for putting Teela first or whatever, but we didn’t. Teela was as much a part of the story as she’s always been a part of the story.
I thought it would be a cool aspect of storytelling to remove the center of our universe for a few episodes and then bring him back. That wasn’t me going, ‘Let’s break this franchise!’ by any stretch of the imagination. People who wanted to attack the show were like, ‘They killed He-Man’, but it wasn’t as if Mattel or Netflix were saying, ‘Here man, go kill a franchise for us. That’s why we brought you here!’ Naturally, He-Man was always going to come back.
Everything we did in He-Man’s absence and when we brought him back still tied in heavily with the lore. I’m a person who has enjoyed a franchise or two in his lifetime, and naturally I enjoy it when they respect the things that have gone before. We really went out of our way to honor what it was that people loved about MOTU. Everybody involved had skin in the game as to whether this would be a reinvention of the franchise or a spiritual continuation of the franchise. We were all in the latter camp.”
Smith seems to have managed to win over critics with Revolution, as the show debuted with a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score. Audiences, however, have still remained divided over whether this is the greatest interpretation of the character since the ‘80s, or the worst. You can decide for yourself with Masters of the Universe: Revolution and its predecessor streaming on Netflix now.
