‘He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe’ Rebooted For One Episode After 30 Years
The popular children’s cartoon He-Man and the Masters of the Universe is making a comeback with an animated feature titled “The Curse Of the Three Terrors,” produced by Super7 especially for San Diego’s Comic Con.
The He-Man episode will play Wednesday at Comic Con in a giant standing room only parking lot as part of an effort to advertise Super7’s Skeletor’s Lair pop-up store, which sells specialized Masters of the Universe merchandise.
The animated He-Man episode will hit iTunes and Google Play August 1 after the San Diego Comic Con ends; here’s the official synopsis of the original 1980s animated cartoon series, according to IndieWire.
“The most powerful man in the universe, He-Man, goes against the evil forces of Skeletor to save the planet Eternia and to protect the secrets of Castle Grayskull.”
Super7 has a license to sell Masters of the Universe merchandise so it created the animated feature as a way to advertise its new toy line. There’s no word on whether the new episode will feature any of the original voice cast and the animation is bound to be different from the 1980s cartoon, but the last episode aired 30 years ago so He-Man fans are bound to be happy.
The He-Man franchise started as a line of toys and went on to spawn a comic book series and beloved children’s animated cartoon. Filmation produced 130 original episodes of the popular children’s animated show from 1983 to 1985 with characters based on Mattel’s Master of the Universe toy line.
The story was set on the magical planet of Eternia where the main character, Prince Adam, turns into He-Man using the “Power of Grayskull” when he raises the Sword of Power into the air.
He-Man vs Lion-O by Ed McGuinness pic.twitter.com/U9En3gCSmm
— Cool Comic Art (@CoolComicArt) July 13, 2016
Joined by his trusty steed Battle Cat, He-Man joined forces with The Sorceress of Castle Grayskull, Teela, Man-At-Arms, and Orko to do battle with the dark lord Skeletor and protect the planet of Eternia from evil-doers.
In 1986, the spinoff She-Ra: Princess of Power took over for He-Man, but it was canceled after just two seasons. Then, in 1987 Gary Goddad directed a live-action version of He-Man starring Dolph Lundgren, which bombed at the box office and grossed only $17.3 million.
There’s talk of another live-action He-Man film to be directed by McG, the director of the Charlie’s Angels movie franchise. Kellan Lutz tweeted out a message to He-Man fans in June saying the film “is in great hands,” suggesting he might star in the upcoming movie, according to Entertainment Weekly.
In the meantime, fans of the show can look forward to a He-Man and Thundercats crossover in comic book form coming this October. DC Comics is set to publish the limited edition of six issues with Mattel’s Rob David and supervising producer Lloyd Goldfine doing the writing.
When Mumm-Ra, the Thundercats’ arch-enemy, tries to steal He-Man’s Sword of Power to defeat Lion-O’s Sword of Omens the two teams of heroes will join forces to defeat all evil-doers, David told ComicBookResources.
“For everyone out there who took different action figures and teamed them up to take on the world, this one’s for you. Writing this crossover event is the thrill of a lifetime, and Rob and I can’t wait to get started…You don’t wait 30 years and not go big!”
Dark Horse books will also be publishing the first ever official companion of the He-Man cartoon series with 600 pages of behind-the-scenes artwork, trivia, and story synopses for every episode. The complete guide is due out in stores August, 17 of this year.
The new animated He-Man and the Masters of the Universe feature will air at San Diego’s Comic Con Wednesday and will hit iTunes and GooglePlay August 1.
[Image via Youtube He-Man video screenshot]
