TheQuartering [7/26/2021]
Kevin Smith says, “Grow the f— up.”
Kevin Smith has lost his patience with a certain group of He-Man fans who are angry over the big twist in Masters of the Universe: Revelation – Part 1.
The writer/director developed the new He-Man series for Netflix based on the idea of continuing the story of the original series. However, adult audiences who remember the original series from their childhood have issued harsh criticism and even taken to “review-bombing” to bring Part 1’s Rotten Tomatoes audience score down.
Smith explained to Variety that he was convinced to even do the series by being told by Netflix’s director of original series Ted Biaselli, “‘I yearn to watch the show I thought I was watching in childhood. That’s what I’m looking for here, the same show, but people can die. Can you do that?’ And I was like, ‘That’s the only thing I can do.'”
However, the big twist in the new series is that He-Man and Skeletor are seemingly killed in battle with each other in the very first episode, tearing magic away from Eternia and leaving the other heroes alone, with Teela being forced to take a more central role in He-Man’s temporary absence. This has led to a number of fans angrily calling this new series a “bait and switch,” since He-Man is mostly only in flashbacks during the series.
Smith does not take those complaints very seriously. “It’s been interesting, seeing who truly is a hardcore fan,” he said. “Because anybody that’s like, ‘Oh, man, there’s not enough He-Man’ or something like that, doesn’t understand the show that we based it on. There were episodes where he lost the sword and he never became He-Man. It wasn’t like He-Man always saved the day. His friends helped him. That was the fucking point of the show.”