Even though He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was a hugely popular show and toy franchise, one key problem still presented itself, and that was the fact that it only seemed to appeal to the young male population. As a result, Mattel and Filmation pooled their resources once again, and Mattel's toiling produced an action figure called She-Ra, who was the twin-sister of He-Man. The action figure for girls was launched and initially everything went well.

Filmation were asked to create a further sixty-five episodes of the new show, She-Ra Princess of Power , with similarly simple designs and more complex storytelling and direction. As production on the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe series was halfway through season two, Filmation began animating She-Ra Princess of Power . The problem they faced was that according to the toy line She-Ra's greatest threat came from "jealous beauty" Catra. The Evil Horde from the Masters of the Universe action figure line had yet to be featured in the He-Man animated series, so a decision was made to have the Evil Horde as She-Ra 's villains!

Filmation and Mattel wanted a big launch piece for She-Ra Princess of Power , so they combined the first five episodes that had been animated, known collectively as "The Sword of She-Ra," integrated them, renaming the new film "The Secret of The Sword." While it didn't break any box office records, it was a sufficient start for the She-Ra series.

This time around the writers were even stronger and more cohesive than they had been for the start of the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe series. Larry DiTillio, Bob Forward, J. Michael Straczynski and Robert Lamb shaped the world of Etheria.

Whereas the animation in the He-Man series had been limited, the animation for She-Ra was more complex - thanks to the success of He-Man, Filmation now had a larger budget with which to work, and therefore more consistent writing was inspired, and of course, the visual direction was much more concentrated, as some of the ex-storyboard staff (e.g. Tom Tataranowicz) were now working as directors.

Sadly, despite being an impressive series, and a perfect female answer to the He-Man series, it failed to keep up with the very profitable He-Man series. Mattel however, wished to try once more to promote the line and gave the go-ahead for a second season of twenty-eight episodes to be produced. These episodes had some of the best animation and directing that Filmation had ever produced, but sales plummeted and the She-Ra Princess of Power cartoon ended after a run of ninety-three episodes and one theatrically released film.