- A return to the world of He-Man
and returning of the Masters of the Universe was inevitable.
Nothing ever dies, kids.
- [Sorceress] Time after time,
you try to take this castle,
but you will never succeed, Skeletor.
- Call your champion.
- Hey man, I'm Kevin Smith,
and today we're going to take a closer look
at my new Netflix series,
Masters of the Universe: Revelation.
This is one of the biggest selling toy lines of all time.
That's predicated on affection for the property.
So a bunch of kids who grew up watching these cartoons
now get a chance to reengage with them,
and so that was the reason to do it, man.
Our version of Masters of the Universe, Revelation,
was meant to address all the characters and storylines
from the old show,
and bring it into the present,
so that if you were a kid back then,
you know, every day after school watching the cartoon,
it's almost like this as a continuation of that cartoon.
We pick up kind of spiritually
where He-Man and the Masters of the Universe left off.
Like, so at the beginning of our first episode,
it plays for the first 10 minutes, like, you know,
a slightly or way better animated version of the old show.
It's very simple,
we establish the relationships,
and it's very warm and young feeling.
And then about halfway through the show,
we turn everything.
Something happens,
and we kind of grow it up,
and starting where we start,
by teeing off from the old show,
just picking up where they left off,
gives it more dramatic thrust,
because these were characters that were
just bathed in innocence.
And in our story,
that innocence gets lost along the way.
I'm 50 years old right now,
and still the older one gets the more one pines
for the things that made them happy in their youth.
It makes you feel young
when you can engage with the things that you engaged in
in your youth,
so this is Netflix and Mattel Television's
gift to the world,
to a bunch of people it's like,
"Remember how happy you were as a kid?
"Here's more!"
You know, so it's,
there's no good reason not to bring it back.
When I was a kid,
I'd watch He-Man and Masters of the Universe
when I got home from school.
From 1981 to '82 it was a ritual.
When you're a kid who's going to school,
and I was 10, 11 years old.
I was wearing a uniform.
I had no control over my life whatsoever.
You dream of like being in charge,
having a little bit of,
a modicum of power.
So watching He-Man and the Masters of the Universe,
like, you know, the tagline,
it's the most famous line from the show.
One of the most famous lines of dialogue
in pop culture history,
"By the power of Grayskull!
"I have the power!"
That's something that as a kid,
you're sitting there going,
"Yeah, man,"
that's wish fulfillment.
To be fair, I've always been a huge comic book fan.
And He-Man and the Masters of the Universe,
particularly the He-Man part of the Masters of the Universe,
is predicated on a secret identity.
It's very much Superman and Clark Kent.
Prince Adam is Clark Kent.
Superman is He-Man.
It always appealed to me,
so much so that when I got the call
about meeting with Mattel,
and they said He-Man
and instantly my eyes lit up,
'cause I was like all those toys
that my parents wouldn't buy me
I can now play with
in the form of this cartoon,
like and do this sprawling, epic adventure.
I don't normally make things like this.
You know, I make things where people
hang out in front of convenience stores and stuff like that.
Or where people get turned into walruses.
(screaming)
For me, it was wish fulfillment as a kid
watching He-Man take power.
And as an adult,
He-Man gave me the power, man,
to do a kind of thing that I don't normally do.
I love this type of program,
and you know, I've loved comic books,
I've loved animation,
I've loved superhero movies forever,
but you know, I'm always the guy who's like,
"Oh, I like to watch them.
"I would never make one of those."
It is amazing to be surrounded by so much talent
and so much love for this project.
Revelation, in the title Masters of the Universe: Revelation
refers to Teela's journey.
Teela finds out something about her
that was hinted at in the old legacy show.
And that's a kernel that we blew out
and really played with in this show.
So the revelation in question
really has to do with Teela,
and that's because if you remember the old show,
you know, at the very beginning,
they would talk about only three others know his secret.
And it was like the Sorceress, Man-At-Arms, and Orko,
as well as Cringer.
Teela, who He-Man fought side-by-side,
and Teela, who protected Adam when he wasn't He-Man,
was always left out of that.
She was kept in the dark like Lois Lane.
So our approach for the story was like, well,
what happens if she finds out?
What happens when she learns who He-Man really is?
And what if she learned that not at him confessing it?
It wasn't him going,
"You know what?
"I think you can handle this."
It was by way of the adventure, of the epic.
Something happens that kind of breaks everybody's world,
and all the revelations are revealed.
You know, when you're talking about
the Masters of the Universe,
a big part of the franchise is right there.
The mysteries of Castle Grayskull,
the secrets of Castle Grayskull,
and secrets can have a damaging effect.
That's what we kind of play with in our storyline.
Masters of the Universe: Revelation honestly,
no bull,
has been one of my top five favorite things
I've ever worked on.
What started as like, "Oh, that'll be fun,"
turned into one of the most satisfying
creative experiences of my life,
so much so that if they were like,
"You want to do season two?"
I might be nervous about doing it,
because I don't think anything will ever be as satisfying
to me as making Masters of the Universe: Revelation
has been for these last two years.
Thanks for taking a look at
Masters of the Universe: Revelation with me.
Part one is going to be on Netflix July 23rd.
Circle that date, July 23rd.
You're going to have the power!
- I have the power!
♪ I need a hero ♪
♪ I'm holding out for a hero till the end of the night ♪