The Marvel Cinematic Universe has inspired countless movies and shows, with Universal attempting to emulate the formula with the The Mummy and the Dark Universe. However, for Masters of the Universe: Revelation, showrunner Kevin Smith is not trying to imitate the box-office beast's knack for setting up spin-offs, but instead its penchant for fan service.
"I love it when I go see a Marvel movie and they throw in an Easter egg where I'm like, 'Holy crap, I know that, that's from the books', so we felt like we would do that as well," he tells SFX Magazine while discussing his sequel to the original '80s run of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. "They were our lodestar, man, Marvel and how they approach the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That was what me and the writers took our cues from. We're like, 'Let's do what they do.'
"They take your childhood, and they re-serve it to you in a really appetising way. They don't ruin it. They don't break your childhood, they give it back to you. They just grow the characters up a little bit and give them more nuances and stuff. So we kind of tried to Marvel Cinematic Universe this thing."
One thing fans will notice while watching is the coveted 1986 Eternia playset that's been vividly brought to life by Smith's team.
"There's this one glorious moment where you see it for the first time and it literally looks like the picture on the old box, man, like the toy that kids never really got to have," he says. "Putting in those big Easter egg moments like the Land Shark, including the Orlax, which is the thing on the sticker that was in the dungeon of Castle Grayskull, this tentacle thing who actually becomes a part of our storyline."
You can check out our full interview with Smith in the new issue of SFX Magazine, which features Masters of the Universe: Revelation on the cover, available from Wednesday, July 14. Subscribe here and never miss an issue.
For more from SFX, make sure to sign up to the newsletter, sending all the latest exclusives straight to your inbox. The first five episodes of Masters of the Universe: Revelation reach Netflix on July 23, 2021.
