Netflix Loses Hit Franchise to Amazon Prime

Netflix has lost a big hit franchise to another streamer, with a live-action She-Ra series reportedly in development at Amazon Prime. According to Variety, the project is in the early stages and will be produced by DreamWorks Animation. The company previously produced the animated She-Ra and the Princesses of Power series for Netflix. That show ran for five seasons — a total of 52 episodes — with the fifth and final season debuting in May 2020.

The new She-Ra live-action series is said to be a standalone story that is not connected to the animated show, despite both being produced by DreamWorks Animation. Notably, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power was a retcon itself, resetting the character’s origin and erasing her association with He-Man. She-Ra, also known as Princess Adora, made her debut in He-Man and She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword, an animated film from 1985. She was revealed to be the long-lost twin sister of He-man, a.k.a. Prince Adam. 

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Following the debut of the final She-Ra and the Princesses of Power episodes, showrunner Noelle Stevenson sat down with Gizmodo and reflected on what the series had meant to her. “Adora’s journey’s always been so personal to me because, not only the crises of faith, but also entering into a situation and expecting it to be a little more simple and straightforward that it’s actually going to be, and then actually realizing what it means to have people who rely on you. For me what they meant was realizing that there are these moments where you have to understand that strong as you might think you are, sometimes you don’t necessarily have the skills you thought you did. Sometimes you’re not prepared for how difficult the task at hand is actually going to be.”

Stevenson added, “When I started showrunning, I was so young and had a lot of faith in my own energy and ability to take hard knocks, but what I didn’t account for was the amount of mediation and management that I would called on to do, and that so many people’s quality of life and career paths were going to be hinging on decisions that I made. That was just so incredibly difficult to deal with at first, and I feel like my journey has been parallel to Adora’s in a lot of ways. The moment when she shatters the sword, it’s a huge step for her and it was for me too, because she’s letting go of the concept of being the perfect person she’s supposed to be and taking the next step to be like ‘Well, I’m not that person. I can only work with what I have and try to be the best version of myself.’”