Why He-Man And She-Ra Can't Be In The Same TV Show
Image Source: IGN
To many fans of the classic Masters of the Universe franchise He-Man and She-Ra are the dynamic sibling duo, brother and sister, each defending their respective planets and fighting the forces of evil. Yet despite being such an iconic duo, they have only ever appeared together on screen in one version of their respective franchises, the 1980 Filmation series She-Ra: Princess of Power. Why is that though? Why can’t the brother and sister duo ever meet again on screen? The short answer is copyright law regarding who owns the TV rights for She-Ra and the Princesses of Power.
Making She-Ra
When Mattel was thinking of turning their She-Ra toy line into a TV show akin to what they had done for He-Man, naturally they went to Filmation to produce it. In this deal, Filmation got the rights to make She-Ra: Princess of Power indefinitely. Filmation would later be bought up by NBC however and because of this, the rights for all future TV endeavors would be owned by Comcast and more importantly NBC Universal. These rights would then go to Dreamworks hence why ND Stevenson was able to make She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, the hit Netflix Series in 2018. Mattel would later lose the TV rights but keep all the other rights such as films, toys, and comic books.
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If there is an equivalent to this situation for another franchise the most similar situation would be Marvel and Spider-Man. While Marvel has the rights to Spider-Man in terms of TV, games, comics, and toys, Sony Studios has the rights to make Marvel Movies so long as they keep making them. This is why in terms of He-Man and She-Ra appearing together they have mostly appeared in various comic adaptions of the toy line such as the DC run of Masters of the Universe yet did not show up in Masters of the Universe: Revelations or She-Ra and the Princesses of Power in 2018.
What Does This Mean For ‘Masters Of The Universe: Revolution’?
Image Source: IGN
For a while, it has been known that for Masters of the Universe: Revelations sequel season Masters of the Universe: Revolution, the character of Hordak and his evil Horde would appear as the main villain. Hordak while being associated mostly with She-Ra because of the Filmation series was created to be a main antagonist for He-Man and the other Masters of the Universe thanks to the toyline. It has created an interesting loophole where Hordak and the Evil Horde are allowed to appear in the He-Man adjacent series but not the other original She-Ra and the Princesses of Power characters.
This means that while Hordak and the Evil Horde are going to appear in He-Man Revolution it won’t mean that Adora, Catra, Shadow Weaver, and the other original She-Ra characters are likely to show up. The only way this could happen is if Mattel and NBC Universal came to some sort of legal agreement to have the characters cross over into each other’s universe, similar to how Sony and Marvel proper once again share Spider-Man on film.
It would be a tall order but many fans of She-Ra and He-Man would love to see the brother-sister duo reunite after so long of not being together on screen in any capacity. Though in some ways She-Ra and her mythology have become iconic in their own right separate from the rest of the Master of the Universe franchise. Perhaps one day Mattel and NBC will share the rights to She-Ra once again and that could open a doorway to all sorts of grand and exciting stories. Only time will tell, but in the meantime, the Master of the Universe franchise doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.
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