WIRE BUZZ: Kevin Smith’s He-Man status report; Joe Manganiello’s gloomy Deathstroke outlook; more

By the power of Grayskull, it looks as though we’ll have to keep our magic swords sheathed for a little bit longer before we get our first proper glimpse at Netflix’s new take on He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

In a recent Twitter back-and-forth with fans, Masters of the Universe: Revelation showrunner Kevin Smith sounded super-upbeat about how the new series is shaping up. But he cautioned that it could be a long time — maybe even six months or more — before we get our first peek at Adam, Cringer, Orko, or any of the other denizens who’re heading to Netflix’s animated version of Eternia. 

Accompanied by longtime partner in comedic crime Jason Mewes, Smith teased that Mewes might even end up with a voice role in Revelation. “He ain’t gonna be Orko — I’ll tell you that right now. But I could get him in there somewhere. He seems like a Stinkor to me.” But Smith chased that tantalizing possibility by tempering the hype, saying the whole project — a complement to Netflix’s popular She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, now in its third season — is still far from ready for prime-time bingeing.

“When will you see art? Probably not for a while,” said Smith. “Don’t count on it, like, for at least for six months, I’d assume. But I've seen stuff, and it's amazing!”

Thanks to Smith’s unveiling at PowerCon earlier this year, we’ve at least seen Netflix’s first promotional image for the show (shown above) — and it indeed looks set to emulate the updated art style fans are already vibing to from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. There’s been no official confirmation from Netflix that Smith’s take on He-Man will occupy the same canonical lore-verse as its companion series, though, and with Masters of the Universe: Revelation still awaiting an official release date, it looks as though we’ll have to keep standing by, like Man-at-Arms, until Smith is good and ready to  finally unleash the power.

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DC’s extended movie universe has taken a decidedly more forked and intrepid approach to mining its comic book roots than Justice League viewers might’ve been expecting back in 2017. That movie’s end credits gave us a bonus scene that teased a possible future for Deathstroke, with Joe Manganiello looking strapped and ready to roll in a cameo that left fans (even the ones underwhelmed by Justice League itself) something to chew on as they awaited news of future DC films.

But since then there’s been little news on Deathstroke’s place in DC’s immediate movie future, and when CBR caught up with Manganiello at this year’s New York Comic Con, the actor didn’t say much to get anyone’s hopes up. “Someday I'll write a book about it,” Manganiello said when asked about what it meant to suit up as Slade Wilson, “but that time is ... yeah.”

That’s not much to go on, but it doesn’t sound as though Manganiello is looking forward to more time in Deathstroke’s Promethium body armor so much as he’s looking back at what’s already been. It’s been a full year since we last heard from possible Deathstroke movie director Gareth Evans on how he might approach the character (with Manganiello presumably in the title role), but even at that time the project wasn’t on the fast track alongside DC’s other near-future movie plans. The Deathstroke: Knights & Dragons animated series is heading to CW Seed next year, but that project features the vocal talents of Gotham's Michael Chiklis.

On the flip side, though, anywhere there’s Batman (even if it’s not the Ben Affleck version), there’s always at least the possibility that Deathstroke could show up as a live-action antagonist. So far, that doesn’t look like a bankable possibility for The Batman — especially now that Zoe Kravitz has been cast to play a different villain — but with that movie’s release date still far off in 2021, we’ll keep our fingers crossed.

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Pokémon Go may be well into its fourth year, but Nintendo’s AR mobile adventure isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Just in time for the spooky season, Pokémon Go is gearing up for a two-week seasonal event that assures you’ll at least be able to turn up in a killer virtual costume — even if your real-life version doesn’t measure up.

Developer Niantic says its annual Pokémon Go Halloween event is set to kick off on Oct. 17 and will deploy adorable costume-clad versions of your favorite fighters into its limited-time Halloween environment. In addition to the introduction of a Pitch-Black Pokémon as well as “more Ghost- and Dark-type Pokémon” showing up in raids and in the wild, be sure to look out for a specially dressed Pikachu … possibly even in rare Shiny Pokémon form.

Nintendo and Niantic also are stepping up their Halloween game with a series of “frightful and fun field research tasks” during the timed event, and if you receive a “spooky message” once you sign on, get ready to set out for an encounter with a frightening Forbidden Pokémon. It all begins at 4 p.m. ET on Oct. 17, and doesn’t let up until after you’ve gorged on all that Halloween candy, as Pokémon Go Halloween waves goodbye for another year at 4 p.m. ET on Nov. 1.

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