Mike Roberts, the showrunner of Masters of the Universe: Tales from Eternia, has died

Mike Roberts, who executive produced and ran Masters of the Universe: Tales from Eternia, died at home on Wednesday 11 November. The news was shared on Facebook by Aubry Mintz, the executive director of ASIFA-Hollywood and an animation professor at Cal State Long Beach, who wrote that Roberts died peacefully with his wife Bree beside him. [1] The Hollywood Reporter put his age at 48. [2]

Tales from Eternia went out free on Mattel’s own Mattel Adventures channel on YouTube from 19 June, twenty episodes of four minutes each, made by Mattel Studios with Snipple Animation Studios. Mattel’s announcement in June named Roberts as showrunner and executive producer, and listed Hot Wheels: Let’s Race, Final Space, TripTank and BoJack Horseman among his credits. [3]

He finished it

All twenty are up. The last one, “Attack on Grayskull Part 2”, went up at the end of October, less than two weeks before he died. [4]

The audience had gone by then. Episode one, “He-Man’s Secret Power!”, has 2.6 million views and episode two has 3.8 million. But episode six has 17,000, and the finale is on 9,700. [4] One of the character shorts Mattel ran on the same channel, in which Skeletor introduces and insults the cast, has 11 million views on its own, more than any episode of the series it was made to advertise. [5]

Our own guide to the series went up in July, when the run was about a third done. It has been the only page on this site about the newest He-Man cartoon ever since.

The rest of the work

Animation Magazine’s list of his credits runs through a lot of animation people have actually watched. He was supervising director on Final Space and on Strange Planet, and he made the opening sequences for BoJack Horseman and for the Clone High reboot. His directing and producing credits include TripTank, F Is for Family, Dallas & Robo, MrBeast Lab and Backyard Sports: The Animated Special, and he was creative producer on Mattel’s Hot Wheels: Let’s Race. He directed the steampunk short Airship Dracula, with Alan Tudyk, and he directed the “Rumbleseat” video for The Sadies, which won a Juno. [1]

Mintz, who worked with him on Airship Dracula, wrote about how he made things:

He was one of the first to use IK puppets in his animation and developed his own style which has been replicated many times. The guy was a visionary. He was never satisfied at stopping and always had endless iterations.

And about the rest of him:

Mike found a way to stay incredibly nice and positive even when having twist and turns in his own career and life.

The last thing he put out was Skeletor at the gates of Castle Grayskull, in two parts, free to anyone with a phone. It is still up, and so is the rest of the cartoon archive when you are done with it, Filmation included.

Notes

1. Animation Magazine, 12 November 2026, “Animation Director-Producer Mike Roberts Passes Away”, reporting a Facebook post by Aubry Mintz. Its words are that Roberts “died peacefully at home beside his wife, Bree Roberts”. Mintz is named there as executive director of ASIFA-Hollywood, an animation professor at Cal State Long Beach School of Art, and a collaborator on Airship Dracula. The same piece carries the credit list used above and the two quotations. Both are reproduced exactly as it printed them.
2. The Hollywood Reporter, 12 November 2026, “Michael John Roberts, Animator and ‘BoJack Horseman’ and ‘TripTank’ Director, Dies at 48”. The article is paywalled, so the age rests on the headline and is attributed rather than stated flat. Animation Magazine gives no age.
3. Animation World Network, 17 June 2026, carrying the Mattel Studios announcement: “Masters of the Universe: Tales From Eternia is executive produced and showrun by Mike Roberts, whose credits include Hot Wheels Let’s Race, Final Space, TripTank, and BoJack Horseman.” The same piece gives the 19 June launch, “the first of 20 four-minute episodes”, the Snipple Animation partnership, and weekly releases “through November 20”. Twenty weekly episodes from Friday 19 June land on Friday 30 October, so that last figure does not reconcile with the rest of the announcement, and the run as released is the one reported above.
4. Mattel Adventures’ own “Masters of the Universe: Tales From Eternia | Full Episodes” playlist, read first hand on 12 November 2026. All 20 episodes are present. YouTube’s own counter put episode 20, “Attack on Grayskull Part 2”, 4:11, at 13 days before that read, dating it 30 October. View counts were read off the same playlist on the same day, rounded as YouTube rounds them.
5. “Meet SKELETOR! | Masters of the Universe: Tales from Eternia | Character Introductions”, on the same channel, 11 million views read 12 November 2026. The character shorts are a separate run from the series proper.

Sources

• Animation Magazine, Animation Director-Producer Mike Roberts Passes Away
• Animation World Network, Masters of the Universe: Tales From Eternia Web Series Set
• Mattel Adventures, Tales From Eternia full episodes playlist
• The Hollywood Reporter, Michael John Roberts, Animator and BoJack Horseman and TripTank Director, Dies at 48

Key art: Mattel, from the official Masters of the Universe: Tales from Eternia key art, (c)2026 Mattel.