She-Ra and the Princesses of Power debuts its sophomore season today, giving audiences everywhere a chance to see where the story of the titular magical girl goes next. The seven-episode second season brings even more humor, heart, and magic to the realm of Etheria, as Adora (Aimee Carrero) and her friends all embark on journeys of self-discovery and acceptance. At the same time, the new batch of episodes prove to be a pretty interesting setup for what the series has in store.
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One of the people most instrumental in bringing this new world of She-Ra to life is Noelle Stevenson, who serves as the series’ creator and executive producer. Stevenson, whose work also includes Nimona and Lumberjanes, has developed a whole new kind of following, as audiences everywhere continue to be charmed and inspired by She-Ra.
Ahead of Season Two’s premiere, ComicBook.com got a chance to chat with Stevenson about the new batch of episodes, the power of the show’s fandom, and the show’s connection to the world of Dungeons & Dragons.
WARNING: This interview does include mild spoilers for the first four episodes of She-Ra‘s second season. Only look if you want to know!
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ComicBook.com: For the fans reading this who are about to jump into Season Two, what can you tease about what they can expect in the new season?
Noelle Stevenson: So, this season, a lot of the first season was setting up these characters and setting up their roles, the roles that they were placed into, and the roles that they chose for themselves. And this season we’re going to try and question what that means for them. So, all of the princesses have come together, they’ve formed an alliance. But what does it mean for them to actually work with each other? For Adora, she’s accepted the role of She-Ra. What does that mean being a leader of this new alliance? Catra has worked her way up, become Hordak’s right-hand man. What kind of challenges is she going to find in that job? So, it’s really just now that we have the board set we’re really starting to play out some of the things that we’ve set up.
On the topic of setting up the “board”, I really loved the D&D-themed episode [episode 2×04, “Roll With It”]. I know that you’re a huge fan of the tabletop world, so I was wondering if you could talk about how that episode came about, and what it was like making that a reality?
I think it felt like it fit really naturally into the world. When I first pitched She-Ra, or actually when I started developing She-Ra I started playing my first D&D campaign. So, I think that naturally some wires got crossed there, my strategy for playing D&D sort of overlapped a bit with my strategy for developing the characters in She-Ra, because it was these characters who selected roles for themselves and they were still struggling to fit into those roles. Definitely the way that it feels when you are thrown into a new D&D campaign and you’re trying to figure out how your character fits in that world and how to be the type of player that you’ve chosen. So, it just seemed to make perfect sense to make that a little bit more literal even though it’s not quite as literal, they’re not literally playing D&D. But it felt like it made a lot of sense and it felt like it fit pretty well.
I will admit, I totally fell for the April Fools’ Day prank about a She-Ra role-playing game, because I would absolutely play that. Is there any chance that that could eventually become a reality?
I’m sure there is. I mean I think that definitely on the fan terms. I heard from several fans who seemed interested in creating something like that. I would love for something to officially be done, and yeah, we’ll just have to see.
I also really loved the sequence in the episode where everyone wears their classic, original costumes. I think that that was really a clever way to work that in without getting too away from what the show is. I was wondering if you could speak to that decision a little bit.
Yeah, again it was something that just felt like it fit. We loved the original show and we pay homage to it fairly often. And so, it seemed like a good way to experiment with that, and see the characters in this classic form. So, it was really just for us a fun shout out in a way for the original.
On that note, are there any elements of the Masters of the Universe world that you would want to introduce to this show that you might not have already?
There are plenty of things coming up. The show is only just getting started, so stay tuned. There are some things on the horizon.
Ideally, how long do you see the overall arc of the show being? And how long do you think that story would take to tell?
I will say that we’re already quite a bit ahead of what is going to be aired [in Season Two]. And we are following a pretty — I came into this with a pretty strong concept of the arcs that we were going to follow and the stories that we were going to tell. So, there’s a lot still for viewers to discover, but I will say that it is something that we planned out and are executing right now. So, I can’t say much more than that. There’s a lot still to come, so I hope that people are excited.
What has it been like seeing the response to this show? I know the first thing that I saw was all of the fan art that came out as soon as the new costume design was revealed, and just how incredibly positive everyone has been about the show before and after it premiered. What has it been like seeing that, and has that had any impact on how you’ve approached these later seasons?
Yeah, I mean it’s amazing. It’s been amazing seeing the feedback and the enthusiasm. I think that it’s been really nice especially to see people picking up what we set out to do and appreciating it and seeing that it was hitting in the way that we hoped it would. That’s very rewarding to see. Yeah, I mean I think we took a risk. We made some changes that were a little bit risky, and it was very validating to see people respond to that with positivity.
Are there any sequences or episodes in Season Two that you’re particularly fond of?
I really like this chunk of episodes. It’s a really fun one. Yeah I mean I loved the D&D episode. That one is super goofy, and weird, and fun with that little bit of drama in it like we love to do. And then, I think there were some others. There were some dark horses in this season that again, we just wanted to try something. We wanted to try a little bit of a different tone or a different style, delve into backgrounds on some characters that people might not expect. And just really work with the characters in the world that we’ve set up and see how far we could go with it.
What do you hope that audiences get out of Season Two?
I hope this sets them up for the future seasons to get excited about […] some of the bigger revelations that are coming, some of the bigger character moments. [T]his is the next step in these characters journeys. There are so many amazing episodes coming up, and this is the next step in all of our character’s journeys. They’re all on their way figuring out who they are. And this episode is so full of these incredible little character moments, and I really hope that people appreciate those and grow to love the characters as much as we do.
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She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Season Two is now streaming on Netflix.
