40 YEARS OF SHE-RA! Recounting the historic origin of She-Ra as told by Lou Scheimer

Today, She-Ra: Princess of Power, turns 40.

With Mattel’s “Princess of Power” figure line arriving in toy stores (and in children’s hearts) back in the Summer of 1985…

…the Filmation company was the first to introduce He-Man’s twin sister to the masses several months earlier on March 22nd, 1985. That is when the theatrical film “He-Man and She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword“ debuted in cinemas.

Filmation bringing the “most powerful woman in the universe” to the world before Mattel was very apropos, considering the creatives at the legendary animation company were overwhelmingly responsible for the creation of the She-Ra character (an origin that oddly still feels less widely known than it ought to be).

Yes, while Mattel was toying with different ideas for various female fashion action dolls like Teela’s twin sister Leela…

…it was Filmation greats like Lou Scheimer, Larry DiTillio, J. Michael Straczynski and more that were behind the genesis of She-Ra… even her name.

So in celebration of She-Ra’s 40th Birthday, we decided to bring to you the words of Filmation co-founder Lou Scheimer from his 2012 out of print book “Creating the Filmation Generation” where he recollects the birth of She-Ra. Enjoy!

It all started at an Italian Restaurant… 

LOU SCHEIMER: "She-Ra was really born because of our relationship with Mattel. I wanted to do another show to latch onto the back of He-Man. 

"I was in an Italian restaurant having a dinner conversation with somebody at Mattel. And I said, "Wouldn't it be appropriate if we could do something with a girl, a superheroine?"

"I wanted to do a superhero that had a real family. We had done some families on the "Super 7" (cartoon) and others, and I said, "I'd like to give He-Man a sister" 

"The (Mattel) guy says, "But she can't appear after 20 years." 

And I said, "What if they didn't know they were twins?" 

Shortly after that, we started development on She-Ra. At one point, He-Man was originally going to be called "He-Ro," and (Mattel) suggested that the new character be called "She-Ro." But I said, "You can't do that because it's not feminine." 

"Then they wanted to call her Hera, which was the name of the Greek goddess who was the wife of Zeus. But for some rea-son they couldn't do that. 

"So (Filmation writer) Larry DiTillio, who was the main guy who helped develop her in the early days, came up with the name "She-Ra" be-cause he was reading a book on Egypt, and in Egyptian mythology "Ra" was a word for a god.

→"When Larry was working on creating the series and characters, besides the name of the lead character, there were some other changes. Because Adam was "Adam," we originally had Adora as "Eve," which might have been a little strange contextually since they were twins, not mates. 

→"The Crystal Castle was originally called "The Palace of Power." 

→"Hordak was originally "Reaper," 

→"and Glimmer was first called "Shimmer." 

"(Filmation writer) Larry (DiTillio) was also the one who came up with the main back-ground for She-Ra, with the twin sister who was kidnapped at birth, the parents who were threatened, and how she grew up being trained by Hordak, Skeletor's nemesis and friend, who really con-quered the universe!

"Mattel liked the idea, but I really think that they weren't able to make it successful as a toy because they didn't merchandise it as well as they could have. 

"She-Ra could have been just as much a boy's toy as it was a girl's toy, but when they gave it perfume and all the girly stuff, boys didn't like it.

"But I'll tell you that as far as the audience, we saw that the boys loved She-Ra just as much because of the characters and the adventure; they just didn't want to buy the girly toys.

It was easy for me to want to do a show that involved a heroine again. I was surrounded by females at my house, with my daughter and my wife. My son wasn't living at home then. 

"I remembered that we had a girl trip and fall in a show that we were doing—I think it was the Hardy Boys—and, even as a young girl, (my daughter) Erika said to me, "Why do the girls always have to slip and fall, and the guys never do?" It was a valid question, and I always kept that in mind when we were developing female characters. 

"I was motivated to have strong women and girls on our shows. That's the way we had done it with Isis as a counterpart to Shazam!, and now we could do it with She-Ra as a counterpart to He-Man. 

"She-Ra was a very different female character than Teela or the Sorceress were on He-Man. Teela was a warrior and was impulsive, and the Sorceress was kind of serene and stand-offish. But She-Ra was generally very mature and almost proper, but with a sense of fun about her. And she wasn't very different whether she was Adora or She-Ra. 

"In an interview with Video Times. Art Nadel was inter-viewed about She-Ra. "We're trying, as we have done in the past, to portray women as being resourceful and capable, rather than the traditional television idea of having the woman turn to the man for help. She-Ra executes heroic exploits at the head of the band of women." 

"It wasn't meant to have a political message of feminism to it directly, but it was meant to show that women and girls could do the same types of things boys and men did if they wanted to. 

"Larry DiTillio worked on the She-Ra bible, with some input from Joe Straczynski, and the principles of the series were right in the opening pages: 

"There will be action tempered by gentleness... adventure mixed with compassion... characters that will appeal to young girls as role models, without losing the interest of boys... rich in the currency of non-violent ideals... 

"The series will highlight high fantasy and vivid characters, action and comedy, drama and gentleness —something for everyone.

"She-Ra, Princess of Power will rein-force the fact that one person can make a difference. Man or woman, boy or girl, you have the poten-tial to make the world a better place." 

Happy 40th Birthday She-Ra!

We’ll see you next time.