Story editor Dean Stefan talks “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe”

Turning a 1980s cartoon world into a fantasy epic that would play in the era of “Lord of the Rings” was the task of the creative forces behind 2002’s “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.” The first 13 episodes were released on DVD earlier this year, with the next 13 set for a May release.

The Masters of the Universe are the heroes of the fantasy world of Eternia. The greatest hero of Eternia is He-Man, who transforms from the meek Prince Adam into the courageous hero.

Story editor Dean Stefan said the 2002 team was able to work from the rich history of “He-Man” from the outset.

“We had the luxury of looking at all this and trying to figure out where geographically, chronologically things might have happened, and what led up to the fact that Adam became He-Man,” Stefan said in a recent phone interview. “That gave us the idea to go back to even his father getting the prophecy that a hero will emerge, in the pilot.

”Stefan says the team was inspired in part by Joseph Campbell’s “Hero With a Thousand Faces.”

“We were all thinking in terms of the classic hero, reluctant hero, the call to adventure … classic elements of what makes a hero,” Stefan said. “And it’s always stronger when the hero is reluctant and doesn’t want to do it until something happens that forces him to.

”Stefan revealed some of the secrets of Castle Grayskull in the new series. He-Man claims his abilities by “the power of Grayskull,” but what did that mean?

“I think Castle Grayskull was originally because some guy who worked on the original stuff, his wife’s name was Gray,” Stefan said. “That was the inside kind of reason. The phrase, by the power of Grayskull, we thought, what does that really mean? Is it a castle? Then we thought, well, if it’s a castle, maybe it could have belonged to someone named Grayskull, King Grayskull.