Despite some fan wishful thinking, don’t expect He-Man/Prince Adam to appear on Netflix’s ‘She-Ra and the Princesses of Power’. Despite the fact that the original ‘She-Ra’ was a spin-off of ‘He-Man and the Masters of the Universe’, there will not a reversal of that formula here. Why? Because Noelle Stevenson, who created the new series and serves as its showrunner apparently hasn’t given it any thought.
In an interview with Inverse, she stated:
“He-Man is not really on the table for this iteration of She-Ra at all… It would be a challenge, I think, to bring He-Man to life in the present day. Even more so than She-Ra. He’s a very iconic character. It’d be a lot of fun to incorporate him into the world of She-Ra, but I don’t know what my approach to that would be.”
Mattel unleashed the Masters of the Universe toy line in 1982, followed the next year by the classic Filmation cartoon series. Thanks to the animated exploits, ‘MotU’ became the best selling toys around, even outselling Mattel’s flagship brand, Barbie. According to the Netflix documentary series ‘The Toys That Made Us’, the female Barbie designers retaliated by creating their own fantasy hero, ‘She-Ra: Princess of Power’, which arrived in 1985.
In the theatrical movie, ‘Secret of the Sword’, He-Man travels to another world, Etheria, where he is reunited with his twin sister, Adora, who had been kidnapped by The Evil Horde when the pair were just infants. Prince Adam’s sister, Princess Adora learned that she could also turn into a superhuman champion of justice and devoted her life to taking down the Horde.
Although the original series’ storyline could not have happened without He-Man, for the current series, Stevenson has established Adora/She-Ra without him, therefore, so there is no NEED to include him.
Unlike all previous He-Man/She-Ra cartoons, this one wasn’t created by Mattel to sell toys. It simply exists as a freestanding cartoon series. Therefore, Stevenson was given free reign to craft the show that she wanted and that vision doesn’t include He-Man, at least not at this time.
If any fans find that unjust, keep in mind that ‘He-Man and the Masters of the Universe’ was rebooted twice: first, in 1990’s ‘The New Adventures of He-Man’; and then in the 2002-04 revamp, also called ‘He-Man and the Masters of the Universe’. She-Ra and her Etherian cohorts weren’t included in either.
Are you bummed that it doesn’t appear that He-Man will appear on ‘She-Ra and the Princesses of Power’?
