Mark Hamill, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Lena Headey and more join Kevin Smith's Masters Of The Universe
Aux Features He-Man
By the power of Grayskull, Kevin Smith has the power to hire a bunch more people to voice the characters in his He-Man reboot! Or sequel! Or whatever the hell this thing is actually going to be, given that it’s supposed to pick up “unresolved storylines” from the original series, as though millions of mild-mannered princes of Eternia were just sitting around for decades, waiting to be transformed back into the most powerful He-Man superfans in the universe. “Will Orko ever find love?” said no one. But let’s find out if he does!
According the The Hollywood Reporter, Smith has brought Mark Hamill, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Lena Headey, Chris Wood, and Liam Cunningham on board for the lead roles of the “anime-style” series, a description that again seems to mean Netflix has decided “anime” is a word meaning “looks like Neon Genesis Evangelion,” given it’s being made by an American man and an American animation studio. For those counting, that makes two former Game Of Thrones stars in main roles: Along with Wood voicing Adam/He-Man and Hamill taking the part of Skeletor (the man knows his animated villains), Headey is Evil-Lyn, Skeletor’s sidekick, with Gellar and Cunningham playing He-Man’s buddies Teela and Man-at-Arms, respectively. But that’s not all! Let’s take a deep breath, get real high, and say “Heeeeeyyyyy-ey-ey, Heeeyyyy-ayy-eahhh—I said hey: What else is going on?”
Masters Of The Universe: Revelation (because everything needs a colon after the main title these days, how else will it pass the subsequent words through to its rectum?) has a lot of supporting cast, as well. The show will feature supporting voice work from (deep breath, everyone): Stephen Root, Diedrich Bader, Griffin Newman, Tiffany Smith, Henry Rollins, Alan Oppenheimer, Susan Eisenberg, Alicia Silverstone, Justin Long, Jason Mewes, Phil LaMarr, Tony Todd, Cree Summer, Kevin Michael Richardson, Kevin Conroy and Harley Quinn Smith. If you’re curious, yes, it’s the same Alan Oppenheimer who voiced Skeletor in the original series. Also, points for keeping that bit of trivia in your readily accessible memory palace.
There’s no release date announced yet for the series, but if you’re impatient for Universe-related content, maybe go watch the new She-Ra? It’s quite good. Or, you can content yourself with this reminder of just how bargain-basement everything about that first version of the show really was. Apparently, He-Man was the most powerful man in the universe, but not powerful enough to demand a sufficient number of animation cels to depict his transformation from meek prince to proud displayer of the gun show. “Sun’s out, guns out,” as He-Man was famous for lazily barking at Teela and Man-at-Arms, right? Something like that.
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I… am very much on board with this, actually.
I loved this show beyond all reason as a small boy. It got me into bodybuilding and gave me the desire to punch muscled skull faced men in purple so I can’t say it didn’t prepare me for life.
I would follow your lifestyle blog.
Mark Hamill voicing Skeletor is absolutely perfect casting imho.
I had zero interest in this until I saw Mark Hamill = Skeletor.
Now I have 0.5% interest. It’s climbing!
Liam Cunningham is a pretty good choice for Duncan/Man-At-Arms.
But do we get Original Dublin accent Cunningham , DR WHO Russian accent Cunningham GOT-Geordie Cunningham , or possibly a new Cunningham ..Mattel American Moustache man Cunningham??
It is such perfect casting that it actually gave me a sensation akin to stretching my back and working out a kink in my spine. It’s like my mind cracked back into place.
Sounds like the most sensible idea he’s had since ‘06.
Who is this for again?
Me . Its for me , but you guys can watch it too.
Children and leather daddies, apparently.
And possibly Leather Children!
Those come later.
You’ve got to love how the original only had a total of, like, fifty animations they mixed and matched.
True Story: I learned animation techniques from one of the men who did key animation for the original. One of the gag drawings in his cube was an “Emotion chart” for He-man, that only showed one face.I also used to work at Toys-R-Us when this came out. Every action figure had the same body, with different heads.
Yup, I had a ton of He-Man action figures when I was a kid. There was one male body, one female body, and a bunch of heads. Occasionally there’d be a different arm, or one character would have a specific torso, but for the most part they were all the same.
Filmation made Hanna-Barbera animation look like Disney.
I’m not going to watch anything Kevin Smith makes again until he agrees to stop making that same fucking stupid face in every photo.
Apparently he does it because he’s naturally squinty, so any time he doesn’t have his eyes wide open like that people accuse him of being stoned out of his gourd.
to be fair, he’s stoned out of his gourd even with his eyes wide open.
Maybe he could alternate between looking stoned and looking like a single-idea bozo.
I’m just not going to watch anything Kevin Smith makes again full stop, as the Jay and Silent Bob Reboot was such an astonishingly shit movie I have no faith that he’s capable of making anything even vaguely okay any more.
Or dressing like he’s eight years old and just raided his dad’s closet.I generally do not wear suits (no real need to), but if the ‘suit jacket with a t-shirt and sneakers’ thing could finally just die the fuck off sometime soon, that would be great. You are not Phil Collins. Even Phil Collins looked like an idiot wearing that shit.
He also needs to buy a second jacket. Every goddamn time there’s a photo of him he’s in that stupid purple jacket.
the “anime-style” series, a description that again seems to mean Netflix has decided “anime” is a word meaning “looks like Neon Genesis Evangelion,” given it’s being made by an American man and an American animation studio.
When Netflix says “anime” they don’t mean the artform, they mean their target market.
when any people say “anime” they’re just being too lazy to say “animation”
Yes and no. Sure, the Japanese say anime to mean all cartoons.
But anime is typically used as a genre term, and as such gets its meaning via consensus. The current consensus is that anime is usually produced by Japanese production companies. Hence, a “Netflix Original Anime Series” is its own term separate from the anime genre, but potentially appealing to people in the anime market.
I was born at just the right time for He-Man and the Masters of the Universe to hold a special nostalgic place in my heart. It started airing on television just at the point where I was old enough to remember it vividly today. Yes, looking back, the show was goofy with the low budget animation and the lame names (Man-E-Faces! Clawful! Ram-Man! and the strangely sexual in retrospect Fisto!)The show was also gave Batman TAS’ Bruce Timm one of his first animation jobs.
The show was also gave Batman TAS’ Bruce Timm one of his first animation jobs.Paul Dini, too.
Henry Rollins? These are strange times, indeed.
As someone who was just at that age when it wasn’t so cool to watch cartoons but was also getting into punk when this came out, the idea of the guy who sang “TV Party” doing the voice for a TV show that was created to sell shitty merchandise feels strange indeed…
Well it’s not like he hasn’t done (excellent) voice work for cartoons before. He was the third season villain in Legend of Korra.
Name checks out for a Kevin Smith article, lol. All good.No, it just strikes me as very anti-Henry to be a part of such a vanity project. He’s a pretty hardcore straight-edge (yes, I am aware he is for decriminalization) who has been railing for decades against corporate greed and the banality of mainstream pop culture lowest common denominator type of sludge. It’s kind of Kevin Smith’s whole deal. It’s just such an odd choice.
Kevin Smith says he’s Henry’s friendBut he’s one of them
Henry’s also not above doing a corporate gig for the giant paycheck, though. He’s done it many times before. I’ve read him likening such jobs to ‘a Rambo mission’. With one paycheck from a job like this, he can probably put out ten books or records on his label 2.13.61. I’d say it’s worth it.“I’ve also done voice-overs for the Gap. Why? This sounds loaded – I did it for the money. Do I enjoy standing in a studio reading copy? No, I’d rather drink paint. But with the money I can make in 10 minutes doing that, I bought more software [for the book company] and put out two books. I love going into major media holes, slick agencies, taking that money and putting it into my own little art projects. I love spending corporate money on counterculture art. To me, it’s a Rambo mission.”https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/the-rolling-stone-interview-henry-rollins-249518/
Read a Lance Henriksen interview once, where he claimed to make two types of movies: “his” movies, and “alimony” movies.
Gotta pay the bills to do the art.
I guess. I dunno, I remember seeing an ad for one of his spoken word tours and the tix for NYC were like $60-ish. Who knows, I just assumed he would have a decent chunk of cash from decades of touring/books/whatever else anyways. He might be hurting for loot. Everyone’s circumstances are different. I could see doing a Gap ad because of the “fuck you and thanks for the check” attitude. I just don’t see how He-Man money getting split up between so much talent is either a counter-culture art piece or a worthwhile “fuck you” money grab. I have been wrong before. Or….hold on….OR….This might be the Jason Mewes “Banksy” moment we all knew was coming and it becomes the next….Clerks? Kevin Smith might have become the re-incarnation of D. F. Wallace? I just don’t see the angle. In the end, like Jordan playing baseball, whatever floats his boat.
A US produced show that “looks like Neon Genesis” would be described as “Anime-style”. Not sure why the author needed to be so snarky about it.
I have become Moss Man, Master of the Universe.
Bravo.
This is shaping up very nicely, even as someone who never watched a single episode of any MotU series, all this great casting is a big pull to check this out when it releases.Also, Kevin Smith is awesome. I’ve never understood the idiotic, violent, unfounded, pathetic hate some people seem to have for him. Don’t like this movies? Fine, plenty don’t, but the levels of unbridled hate some have for this guy is astounding.
There is also a middle path whereupon Kevin Smith is a well-meaning but untalented geek with a fan base.
plot twist: avatar the last airbender, gi joe and transformers g1 were anime even though they have western production studios.
Thundercats was outsourced by Rankin and Bass to Topcraft, a Japanese animation studio that (not long after Thundercats ended) became a part of goddamn Ghibli.
A Kevin Smith project with Jason Mewes AND Harley Quinn Smith? Was Brian O’Halloran sick, or are they saving him for season 2?
Next thing you’ll tell me an upcoming Tim Burton movie is going to be scored by Danny Elfman!
Would have rather had Cam Clarke reprise his role as He-Man.
Oh, look. Kevin Smith is making his face again.
Kevin Smith is compelling evidence for the story parents tell their kids that if they make a face and the wind changes it will stay that way forever.
i was excited for this until i saw kevin smith’s name attached. i will skip it.
Headey is Evil-Lyn,
Bloody hell, I want to see that in a life action movie!
“Yeah! Dicks!” – Bros who hated on She-Ra.