He-Man & The Masters of the Universe Creators Discuss Giving A New Generation “Their He-Man”

Not to be mistaken with Masters of the Universe: Revelation, Netflix is returning to the world of Eternia with a brand new take on the lore of He-Man and his fellow masters with the upcoming series, He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe. We here at Comicbook.com recently had the opportunity to talk with Showrunner Rob David and Co-Executive Producer Jeff Matsuda about this new CG animated series that is much more skewed toward a younger audience and is looking to introduce the newest generation to a warrior of Castle Grayskull of their very own.

Rob David started the discussion by tapping into what makes Masters of the Universe a story that stands the test of time, and why he felt it was time for the franchise to receive a new coat of paint:

“Masters of the Universe is just one of those stories, I’m not going to call it a brand, it’s a living breathing story. It’s a special story in that it has the potential to speak to multiple generations at once. What we did with this is that we had the opportunity to re-imagine the Masters of the Universe for this next generation of kids and for those like us that are kids at heart.”

Extrapolating on this point, David broke down the idea of giving a new generation their own version of the franchise to call their own, while remaining true to the core tenants of Masters of the Universe:

“We wanted to give this next generation their He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. We wanted to distill what makes the original great at its core, and then look for a way to recontextualize it for kids today. At its heart, it’s pure MOTU but it’s told with new instrumentation.”

Jeff Matsuda, the show’s co-executive producer who helped design these new characters and has a background with energetic re-imaginings such as The Batman animated series and TMNT, confirmed that it was exciting to rework the original story for a new audience:

“It’s exciting for the new generation to have something for themselves.”

What do you think of the new style for the upcoming Netflix animated series? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of Eternia.