Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Dolph Lundgren starred as He-Man while Kevin Smith says he is a long-time fan

By the power of Grayskull! Clerks filmmaker Kevin Smith is teaming up with Netflix to revive the He-Man and Masters of the Universe series.

The early 80s animated franchise started life as a Mattel toy range inspired by the success of the Star Wars action figures.

It was later turned into a film starring Rocky actor Dolph Lundgren.

Last year, Netflix premiered She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, a spin-off praised for its LGBT representation.

"This is the Masters of the Universe story you always wanted to see as a kid!" Smith told the audience at the annual Power-Con convention in California at the weekend.

Image copyright Alamy Image caption He-Man and his pet tiger Battlecat were staples of the original series

The series premise revolved around the conflict between heroic He-Man aka "the most powerful man in the universe" and the evil sorcerer Skeletor on the planet Eternia,

"I'm Eternia-ly grateful to Mattel TV and Netflix for entrusting me with not only the secrets of Grayskull, but also their entire Universe," Smith added.

The new series, Masters of the Universe: Revelation, will apparently pick up where the original animated series left off and will use Japanese anime-style animation.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The new series will be animated so auditions will sadly be limited to voices

Smith will serve as showrunner and executive producer while Mattel Television will act as producers.

The 1987 movie, which also starred Frank Langella and a pre-Friends Courteney Cox, was a critical and commercial flop which failed to earn back its reported $22m budget.

But the film has since attained cult status among some fans and the characters remain popular, even appearing in a recent British TV advert which saw enemies He-man and Skeletor recreate the climactic dance scene from the movie Dirty Dancing.

Image copyright FOX Image caption Centineo will play He-Man in a film to be released in 2021

Twenty-two-year-old actor Noah Centineo confirmed earlier this year that he has been cast as the musclebound hero in a live action remake of Masters of the Universe.

He told The Tonight Show's Jimmy Fallon: "It's quite an opportunity."

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