Written by Many fans of the 1983 Filmation series “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” were thrilled when the cast list for Netflix and Mattel Television’s new animated series “Masters of the Universe: Revelation” was announced, which included the character Ileena.
Reportedly to be portrayed by Kevin Smith’s daughter actor Harley Quinn Smith, this character of Ileena, while only appearing in one episode of the 1983 classic series titled “A Friend in Need“, gained a great deal of notierty among fans for both her outfit and her drug addiction in that episode.
But when the “Masters of the Universe: Revelation” series was fully released, the character of Ileena was nowhere to be found. Fans wondered why… until they watched the commentary for Part One, Episode Two “The Poison Chalice” on YouTube (found here) with Kevin Smith and Episode writer Diya Mishra.
Here is a partial transcript of what they had to say about it:
KEVIN: There’s a character that Diya wrote an amazing scene for, what was the character’s name?
DIYA: Ileena, who I love. I love Ileena from the original…
KEVIN: And there’s a big fight with her and Teela.
DIYA: Yes. Right before they are going to go to the Sorceress, you find out that Randor has had basically a few guards who swore an oath to protect the land and they are led by Ileena who, as we know, looked up to Teela in the original series. And there’s a whole episode about that. She learned from Teela about bravery. And Teela has to fight her (in Revelation). And it was like me doing what I would want as a fan which is like, really carrying over these lessons and having Teela face it. And it was voiced by….
KEVIN: My own daughter.
DIYA: Wow.
KEVIN : That’s like, you know, what those stories of Moses or whatever the **** where God told – to sacrifice his son and God is like “Just kidding, don’t worry about it”. I heard the Lord tell me sacrifice your child’s part in the Masters of the Universe (Revelation) for the betterment of the whole program and so I did. We had to cut her out which was such a bummer. And it was such a great scene.
Writer Diya Mishra also described the end of the fight between Teela and Ileena as well, which ended in a very cool way:
DIYA: (Teela) faught Ileena. And (when) Ileena gets beaten- …she looks up at Teela and says “I used to look up to you.” And Teela goes… “It looks like you still do.” and walks away.
What a great line! So, while we had all this great info on the character of Ileena and her deleted scene in “Masters of the Universe: Revelation” for a while now, we never knew what she looked like…. until now.
Fellow Masters of the Universe fan and historian Jukka Issakainen reached out to ForEternia and informed us that he aquired the official Powerhouse Animation Model Sheet for the deleted character of Ileena, which he shared via an episode on his YouTube Channel (found here.) We took a screenshot of it, found below:
It was definitely exciting to see! Plus, we found it very apropos how Ileena’s outfit resembled Teela’s outfit, considering Ileena’s new station in servitude for King Randor (and how she always looked up to Teela.) Bravo!
So will Ileena ever make an appearance in this continuity, either in “Masters of the Universe: Revolution” or beyond? Or will Ileena fans always be wondering what could have been? We shall see.
We want to thank Jukka Issakainen for reaching out to us sharing this awesome animation model sheet info! And be sure to check out his video covering this topic by clicking here (or watching it embedded below) with some added detail we didn’t cover here!
We’ll see you next time!
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she cant show off her stomach nowadays. people would freak
@skeledog An outfit like that today will be criticized for objectifying women. Confoundedly He-Man in a loincloth is still acceptable.
I feel like that whole “It looks like you still do" line would have just seemed kinda disrespectful, like it was spitting in the face of everything Ileena had learned during her focus episode.
@thunderfoot
I have seen friends and sisters say worse.
My mum has not talked to her sister in over a year that started over a quibble during a holiday. The things that were said to each other was atrocious and I think both would take back if they could.
I think what Teela said is tame in comparison and that setting is a broken world with broken people after a competitive fight. Eternia is not as it was when they were younger.
Fair enough, but the way it’s handled makes Teela come off as a cocky prick.
Hmm I was confused about Wikipedia for so long having this character listed.