'She-Ra' Season 5: Keston John teases Horde Prime's interactions with Catra and Glimmer, and the final season
Horde Prime (Keston John) is the final villain She-Ra (Aimee Carrero) will be going up against as 'She-Ra and the Princesses of Power' draws to a close. However, She-Ra isn't the only hero who'll be facing Horde Prime - he has Glimmer Karen (Fukuhara) and Catra (AJ Michalka) in his clutches as well. In an exclusive interview with MEA World Wide, Keston John teases the interactions between Horde Prime and his captives, as well as what it's like to see 'She-Ra and the Princesses of Power' come to a close.
Catra is no stranger to manipulating those in greater positions of power than her. Horde Prime, however, is an operation on a whole other level, according to Keston John. "Unlike Hordak who gets, I'll say duped by Catra, Horde Prime is always ten steps ahead and so Catra, when she tries her old tricks on Horde Prime, he sees it coming. So just when she thinks she's using him, he's really using her."
He teased some interactions between Horde Prime and Glimmer being an important part of the season to come. "There's gonna be some fun stuff with Glimmer. I'm excited for the audience to get to see that. Glimmer is already so conflicted with her place of power now, how she received that power, and honestly, her place in the Best Friend Squad and how they treat her," he said. "I think Horde Prime just sees into that and just will continue to just do his best to break her down."
He talked a little more about the season's end and looked back to its beginning. "You know it's funny, I always think about the trust they put in me," he said, of the show's producers. "They didn't audition me to do Horde Prime. They just kinda just hoped I could do it and that's kind of cool."
"Obviously, 'She-Ra' marks [what has] been a really important series for me. I come from the on-camera world," he continued, "When we started in 2016. It was only the second animated show I'd ever done, the first being 'Marvel's Avengers Assemble.'" John had played Killmonger on the show, in addition to voices various other characters. He talked about his experience working on 'She-Ra and the Princesses of Power.'
"What I love about what Dreamworks does, and what Netflix does is they kept coming back to - even from the very first audition - that they wanted these characters to be real, and to experience real emotion, and to go through everything we go through. It's really sad for me to have it end," he said.
He went on to talk about his feelings about the end of the series. "For me it's just, it's a beautiful way to end it. Fifty two episodes of television, and I think we told it in a truthful way," he said. "I think for me it's some of the hardest work I've ever done...you'll see me in a scene literally with myself. To go through a script and record as Horde Prime and then go through a script and then record as you know, another character," he said.
"It was a beautiful challenge and while I'm sad it's ending, I'm so glad we had that time. And we get to watch it all again on Netflix anytime we want, so. It's kinda beautiful. I really wish we had gotten to spend time, this particular launch season going to cons and talking to people, but there'll be time afterwards, after this pandemic is over."
Keston John can be found on 'In the Dark,' as Darnell James. He mentioned that this won't be his last work in animation, however, though he can't yet reveal what those projects are.
'She-Ra and the Princesses of Power' Season 5 releases May 15, on Netflix.