One example: While He-Man and his alter ego Prince Adam are still voiced by the same actor (this time by “Supergirl’s” Chris Wood), Adam is now a scrawnier, more normal looking young man, instead of a hulking Adonis who looks exactly like He-Man in regular clothing. The animation, led by directors Patrick Stannard and Adam Conarroe (Netflix’s “Castlevania”), pays loving attention to the design aesthetic of the original - characters drive vehicles that evoke the tie-in He-Man toy line - while upgrading it for an adult eye and sensibility. Several locations from the original show are smartly utilized, and nearly two dozen characters (Trap Jaw! Tri-Klops! Stinkor!) make memorable appearances. Beloved sci-fi composer Bear McCreary (“Battlestar Galactica,” “The Walking Dead”) wrote a sweeping score that takes the story seriously. The general consensus among those upset: Smith had indeed not given fans the thing they grew up watching - namely, he had not given them He-Man.īy any reasonable measure, Smith, David and the rest of the creative team were successful in achieving what they set out to do: Make a series that looks and feels like a sophisticated, adult continuation of the “He-Man” animated series from the 1980s. It’s gonna be true to the franchise.”Īnd yet, a little more than 24 hours after the debut of “Masters of the Universe: Revelation” on Netflix - and despite near universally glowing notices from critics - the show has been “review-bombed” by users posting to Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb. You think I’m gonna be the fall guy for that? If I’m involved in a thing, it’s going to be true to what it is. “And also, because I know what a fan base reacts like when they don’t get the thing they grew up watching. “Honestly, if it had been anything else outside of that - if they were like, ‘We want you to reinvent this for the modern age’ - that would have scared me off creatively, because I’m not that inventive,” Smith continued. “And I was like, ‘That’s the only thing I can do.’” That’s what I’m looking for here, the same show, but people can die.

“ like, ‘I yearn to watch the show I thought I was watching in childhood. 'I know what a fan base reacts like when they don't get the thing they grew up watching.' Finally, He-Man and Skeletor could really do battle, and one - or both! - could get stabbed. “He’d taken some of the great stuff that Frank Miller had done with ‘Daredevil’ and found a way to honor that but then build on it,” David said.ĭavid and Biaselli wanted Smith to do the same with “He-Man”: Take the show from the 1980s and continue that story with those characters, only now for an adult audience. Separate from his feature film work, Smith had authored comic book runs of Marvel’s “Daredevil” and DC’s “Green Arrow” in the late 1990s and early 2000s that David greatly admired for their fealty to the subject matter, with none of Smith’s signature dick and fart jokes. “Not to even reimagine: Let’s just do a direct continuation of the classic ’80s era.” And the company was developing a live-action feature film adaptation that would also bring He-Man’s world of Eternia into a 21st century cinematic context.īut David and Netflix’s director of original series Ted Biaselli had hit upon a third approach to the property: A show that would be “for those adult fans who grew up loving ‘He-Man,'” David said. Mattel was already working with Netflix on a CG-animated “He-Man” series that would reboot and update the property for a new generation of children. But it was the ’80s, so you watched everything that was on.”ĭavid, however, had a specific pitch for Smith. “They have one of the baddest-ass villains in history, Skeletor, visually incredible, and all they did was somersault and not really fight. “I almost hate-watched it, because I was like, this show’s for babies,” he said. He was a young teenager during “He-Man’s” run from 1983 to 1985, and he wasn’t exactly a die-hard fan. “I never would have put that together,” he said.

Anyone familiar with Smith’s sui generis oeuvre of profane indies like “Clerks,” “Chasing Amy” and “Dogma” might be surprised that Mattel would think of Smith as the right creative shepherd for an earnest swords-and-sorcery property about a hulking Adonis in a furry speedo and chest-plate.

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