Revive the iconic animated series and legendary sword from 1981!

Back in 2010, when the news broke about a reboot of the classic 1985 animated series Thundercats, my immediate reaction was, “Awesome! Now let’s see a revival of Blackstar!” Fast forward to 2014, and when a reboot of 1981’s Danger Mouse was announced, I thought the same: “Cool, but how about Blackstar next?” The same sentiment echoed with Disney’s 2016 announcement for a DuckTales reboot. Each time, I found myself wishing for a Blackstar revival.

This trend continued with the 2018 Netflix reboot of She-Ra: Princess of Power, the 2021 He-Man reboot Masters of the Universe: Revelation, a CG version of Inspector Gadget, the American update of Voltron, and numerous new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Transformers projects. Even a second Thundercats series and multiple Smurfs movies came and went. It’s clear that the kids who grew up in the ’80s are now the ones producing and writing these shows, but it seems they overlooked Blackstar, one of the coolest animated series of that era, centered around an epic sword.

There’s a direct lineage from the success of 1977’s Star Wars to the wave of space-themed, fantasy-driven Saturday morning cartoons that followed. Star Wars inspired ABC’s Thundarr the Barbarian, a post-apocalyptic fantasy featuring a brawny hero battling magical villains while sporting a fur skirt and teaming up with a sorceress, all while wielding a lightsaber-like weapon. Thundarr, in turn, influenced Blackstar, CBS’s counterpart, featuring a similar hero, a fur skirt, a sorceress, and his own version of a laser sword—though Blackstar also had a dragon to ride.

Both shows were at the forefront of the post-Star Wars dark fantasy trend, which included films like Excalibur, Conan the Barbarian, and Dragonslayer. Unlike many of those ’80s fantasies—Flash Gordon being a notable exception—Thundarr and Blackstar maintained a connection to Star Wars’ sci-fi roots, blending technology and mysticism. Thundarr enjoyed greater popularity, but Blackstar offered a more intriguing narrative: a darker, richer world with a more imaginative sword that wasn’t just a rehashed lightsaber. Despite only airing for a single season with 13 episodes compared to Thundarr’s 21, Blackstar’s potential has lingered in my mind for years.

The plot is straightforward: John Blackstar, an astronaut from a future Earth, gets sucked into a black hole in his experimental timeship and ends up stranded on an ancient alien world filled with magic and monsters. It’s essentially an isekai story, predating the genre’s explosion in anime and manga.

The Overlord, the local villain, rules the planet Sagar with the Powerstar, a massive two-handed crystalline energy sword. The Powerstar eventually shatters into two identical halves, creating two powerful weapons: the Power Sword, still wielded by the Overlord, and the Star Sword, which Blackstar acquires. Blackstar becomes the face of a growing rebellion against the Overlord’s tyranny, while the Overlord seeks to crush this uprising and reclaim the Star Sword.

In interviews for Blackstar’s 2006 DVD release, the creators acknowledged their influences: the protagonist draws from John Carter of Mars and Flash Gordon, while also resembling the lead from the 1979 live-action series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. The Trobbits, small comedic characters who rescue Blackstar after his crash, are inspired by Tolkien’s hobbits and Disney’s seven dwarfs, each with a single personality trait and a mute youngest member.

The Overlord is a mix of Darth Vader and Ming the Merciless, while Blackstar’s sorceress companion, Mara, is essentially a reimagined version of Thundarr’s Princess Ariel, sharing similar powers, an elegant personality, and an obvious crush on the oblivious hero.

While the characters may not feel particularly unique, the mythology and setting of Blackstar’s world certainly do. The Powerstar serves as a unique plot device in fantasy animation, with the symmetry of the hero and villain each possessing half of the legendary weapon—symbolizing the struggle for power in a world trying to define itself. Their connection through the broken Powerstar creates a personal rivalry, giving them a reason to clash repeatedly.

This dynamic also highlights their differing approaches to power. The Overlord wields the Power Sword with brute force, while Blackstar uses the Star Sword with finesse and magical versatility. The concept of these two swords as yin and yang, perfect halves forming a greater whole, is a sophisticated idea for an ’80s cartoon—one of many concepts that went unexplored.

For modern viewers, Blackstar can be tough to watch. Produced by Filmation, which specialized in budget-friendly American animation during the ’80s, the series relied on cost-saving techniques like recycling animation and a limited sound effects library. The sound design is jarring and repetitive, with voice acting that often sounds like everyone is shouting. The scripts are clunky, with Blackstar’s quippy one-liners falling flat; his best line might be a forced “Putting on a little weight, aren’t you, Rocko?” while tossing a rock elemental.

The series was designed for syndication, leading to episodes airing out of order, resulting in a lack of story development or character arcs. Continuity errors, inconsistent designs, and budget-driven slow pans across painted backgrounds are prevalent.

However, the world of Sagar is captivating. There are hints of ancient technologies and long-lost civilizations beneath a lush forest, centered around the mystical Sagar tree, a source of power tended by the Trobbits. Sagar is populated with bizarre creatures that resemble familiar animals or magical constructs—shark-bats, frog-rabbits, and monkey-birds—long before such hybrids became a staple in modern animation. The painted backgrounds are rich and colorful, evoking a world filled with the darkness and detail reminiscent of Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal.

While many ’80s cartoons drew clear lines between good and evil, Blackstar presents a world where morality is more complex. Sagar is a chaotic landscape where hungry monsters, primitive civilizations, and barbaric enclaves coexist, each posing a threat to Blackstar and the Overlord, yet offering opportunities for both to gain an advantage in their ongoing conflict. There are even hints of a nuanced magic system, distinguishing between mental sorcery and elemental nature magic.

After Blackstar’s single season, Filmation quickly pivoted to the better-funded He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, a series based on an existing toy line but clearly borrowing elements from Blackstar. Once again, there’s a muscular hero in a fur skirt wielding a magic sword, battling a sorcerous villain in a chaotic techno-fantasy world filled with environmental hazards and diverse humanoids.

Filmation regular Alan Oppenheimer voiced both Blackstar’s Overlord and He-Man’s Skeletor, while Linda Gary voiced Blackstar’s Mara and He-Man’s Teela. Staff writer Tom Ruegger developed the series bible for both shows, evident in their similar character rosters and the sprawling world where magic and technology coexist. One He-Man episode even reused several Blackstar sequences, featuring Blackstar’s dragon-horse Warlock as a creature He-Man saves from a giant spider.

While He-Man shared many of the same budgetary and aesthetic limitations as Blackstar—recycled animation, annoying sound design, and ineffective comic relief—it quickly gained popularity. So much so that toy maker Galoob attempted to capitalize on Mattel’s success by releasing a poorly received Blackstar toy line two years after the show’s cancellation. Today, He-Man enjoys a string of reboots—animated versions, CG adaptations for kids, and a new live-action movie slated for 2026—while Blackstar remains largely forgotten.

This lack of recognition is puzzling. The trend of rebooting beloved ’80s cartoons seems natural in our nostalgia-driven media landscape, yet Blackstar, a series that was more imaginative and ambitious than both its predecessor and successor, has been overlooked.

My interest in a Blackstar reboot isn’t about recreating a flawed, cheaply made series; it’s about realizing the potential these characters and this world never fully explored in the ’80s. A modern adaptation with updated animation could provide John Blackstar with a proper backstory and delve deeper into the hero/villain themes the original only skimmed. It could fully utilize the retro-futuristic magic setting and the expansive world of Sagar in ways Filmation never imagined.

Most importantly, a contemporary update could finally explore the event that shattered the Powerstar, transforming it into two thematic weapons. There are countless story possibilities tied to that iconic sword, just waiting for a new generation to uncover.