Kevin Smith Reveals His Masters of the Universe Series Draws Inspiration From Star Wars, Marvel and More

Kevin Smith revealed his Masters of the Universe: Revelation series draws inspiration from the worlds and stories of Star Wars, Marvel, and more! Not only was it surprising to see that Netflix and Mattel Television would be producing an official original animated series taking place after the events of the Filmation produced series from the 1980s, but that the showrunner behind the project was Kevin Smith. Now that we have gotten our first look at Masters of the Universe: Revelation, Smith has been opening up about what we can expect to see when it drops on Netflix later this Summer.

Smith has been teasing Masters of the Universe fans about what we can hope to see from Revelation, and was asked about which of the characters he would like to see in other franchises during the newest episode of the Fatman Beyond podcast. It was here that sparked a revelation that Smith noted how he and the team were inspired by other famous fantasy franchises such as Star Wars.

"For our incarnation of Masters of the Universe, Revelation, it leans on every franchise that you love." Smith began, "There's a lot of Star Wars in it. There's a lot of [The] Lord of the Rings in it, there's a lot of Marvel movies in it. But it's all the ingredients, the chief elements of Mattel characters that you know and love." Elaborating on this further, Smith explained, "But the DNA has baked into it, a lot of satisfying other franchises that I loved. So, in my head, I've crossed over with all of them."

Smith then revealed how he took chose specific elements to bring in and blend into a new experience, "...[B]ecause we cherry picked feelings, set pieces, arcs, things like that...If you're gonna do a thing, do it right." As he explained further, "Call it homage, call it theft, but there's a lot of other great stuff at the root of our Masters of the Universe: Revelation...If you had all those action figures for our Masters of the Universe, you'd be able to play them in almost any adventure. They're interchangeable with many different magical franchises, superhero franchises."

Masters of the Universe: Revelation debuts July 23rd on Netflix, but what do you think? Are you excited to see how Masters of the Universe: Revelation is inspired by all of these worlds? What are you hoping to see later this Summer on Netflix? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or you can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!