If you're unfamiliar with the name Noelle Stevenson, fear not, because you'll be hearing plenty about her soon enough. As a wunderkind of the comic book page, Stevenson is the creator of NIMONA, a HarperCollins published graphic novel about an impulsive and imaginative young shapeshifter with a penchant for villainy. For my money, Nimona is a sublimely subversive epic for all ages that dabbles brilliantly in the realms of fantasy, adventure, and sharks with boobs. I'm not kidding about that last part. Read the book, it's delightful. Furthermore, Stevenson is also the mastermind behind the Eisner Award-winning comic series LUMBERJANES, a Scooby-Doo meets the GOONIES camping adventure featuring a diverse cast of plucky young teens in the wildersness. At this time, both NIMONA and LUMBERJANES are in active development for film adaptations.
In addition to the above-mentioned projects, Stevenson is also the showrunner on a new series from DreamWorks Animation Television coming to Netflix on November 16th called SHE-RA AND THE PRINCESSES OF POWER. That's right, the long-lost twin sister of Prince Adam of Eternia a.k.a. He-Man is back, and she's bringing some friends along for what's sure to be a wild ride.
Here are some brilliantly-colorful new images from the upcoming show:
Recently, Stevenson sat down with Entertainment Weekly to talk about the new She-Ra project:
“I was really interested in finding what my next project would be, and finding something epic, serialized, action-adventure, fantasy, sci-fi…all of the things I wanted to do. [She-Ra] has this majority female cast, it’s centered around a female hero, it’s got rainbows and it’s got robots, it’s got everything I like in one place.”
Noelle shared her idea with Dreamworks for a new She-Ra animated series when she'd heard that the studio had purchased the character's classic library and was looking for someone to helm the reboot:
“When you’re working on a pitch, you have no idea if it’ll go or not, or really what will happen. At that stage, anything can happen, so it’s best not to get too attached to what you’re working on. But I realized at one point, ‘Oh my God, I love this, I really, really want this.’ Two and a half years later, I’ve only gotten more entrenched in it. It is very, very dear to me.”
When the new series kicks off, it will feature a familiar beat from the 1985 original series. By that I mean that Adora, who'd been kidnapped as an infant and raised by the Evil Horde, one day discovers that her upbringing has been an elaborate lie, and that she hails from a different part of the kingdom entirely.
“We’ve really started from the same starting point where the original show started from because Adora has such a great backstory,” Stevenson remarked. “She’s separated from her family as a baby, she’s sent to another planet, she’s adopted by the villain overlord and raised by him in this evil army. She’s been raised to believe that the villains are doing the right thing and that the Princesses are the evil ones. And so we follow her as she has this crisis of faith; she’s been very sheltered her whole life and as she starts to experience the world, she realizes that there’s more to this than she knew, that maybe there’s a reason they were called the Evil Horde,” Stevenson laughs, “that maybe they were evil.”
Throughout the series, Adora, as She-Ra, will discover what it's like to be the Princess of Power, along with the help of some very courageous friends and family.
“As She-Ra, she doesn’t know how to act. This is all new to her, and it’s a little clumsy at first. It’s like an uncomfortable suit. She’s like, ‘Okay, here I am. I’m very glamorous, I’m very strong, people are looking up to me — because I’m very tall.’”
SHE-RA AND THE PRINCESSES OF POWER stars the voices of Aimee Carrero (ELENA OF AVALOR) stars as Adora/She-Ra, Karen Fukuhara (SUICIDE SQUAD) as Glimmer, AJ Michalka (THE GOLDBERGS) as Catra, Marcus Scribner (BLACK-ISH) as Bow, Reshma Shetty (ROYAL PAINS) as Angella, Lorraine Toussaint (ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK) as Shadow Weaver, Keston John (THE GOOD PLACE) as Hordak, Lauren Ash (SUPERSTORE) as Scorpia, Christine Woods (HELLO LADIES) as Entrapta, Genesis Rodriguez (TIME AFTER TIME) as Perfuma, Jordan Fisher (GREASE LIVE!) as Seahawk, Vella Lovell (CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND) as Mermista, Merit Leighton (KATIE AND ALEXA) as Frosta, Sandra Oh (KILLING EVE) as Castaspella, and Krystal Joy Brown (MOTOWN: THE MUSICAL) as Netossa.
For more on Stevenson's vision for SHE-RA AND THE PRINCESSES OF POWER, be sure to check out EW's full article. Furthermore, if you'd like to hear more about Nimona, be sure to check out the Ladies of Valhalla podcast, featuring an in-depth discussion about the amazing enigmatic novel.