Amazon’s She-Ra Live-Action Series Taps Watchmen Director Nicole Kassell

Nicole Kassell has reportedly been tapped by Amazon to direct its upcoming She-Ra live-action series. Variety reports Kassell will direct and executive produce the pilot episode of She-Ra if Amazon chooses to move forward with the project. There currently isn’t a writer attached to the live-action adaptation. Nicole Kassell’s credits include an Emmy nomination and a DGA award for HBO’s Watchmen, where she directed and executive produced multiple episodes. She’s also directed other HBO series such as Westworld, The Leftovers, and The Baby, along with FX’s The Americans.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power was a Netflix original animated series that ran for five seasons and 52 episodes. The show was produced by DreamWorks Animation, who will also serve as executive producer of the live-action She-Ra. However, the new iteration will be a standalone project and not connect to the Netflix animated series. 

If Amazon does give She-Ra a full series order, it will mark the first full live-action adaptation of the character and franchise. The heroine originally debuted back in 1985 under He-Man‘s umbrella, which eventually led to the Masters of the Universe star getting her own cartoon before long. She was then brought back to the headlines with Netflix’s five-season romp which received critical acclaim from fans.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power retconned the titular character’s backstory to remove references to He-Man/Prince Adam, where she was Adam’s long-lost twin sister, Princess Adora. She was kidnapped as a baby by the evil Hordak and raised on Etheria, where she was brainwashed into serving as Force Captain of the Horde. He-Man was able to help She-Ra break free of the mind control and gifted her the Sword of Protection, which transforms Adora into She-Ra, in a similar transformation from Adam to He-Man. 

This is not the first Masters of the Universe project to find a second life. Recently, Kevin Smith oversaw Netflix’s animated take on He-Man in Masters of the Universe: Revelation, and another series covering Prince Adam debuted called He-Man and the Masters of the Universe that used CG technology. A live-action film of He-Man has also been in the works for years, and at one point, Black Adam star Noah Centineo was slated to star as He-Man himself. However, Centineo left the project, and no word has been given on recasting yet. 

Are you excited to see She-Ra get the live-action treatment? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!