Ars readers of a certain age no doubt remember the 1980s He-Man and the Masters of the Universe series (and its spinoff, She-Ra: Princess of Powers) and the many, many offshoots of this hugely popular Mattel franchise, including an extensive line of action figures. Amazon MGM Studios no doubt hopes to cash in on any lingering nostalgia with its forthcoming film, Masters of the Universe. Judging by the extended teaser trailer, we’re getting an origin story for He-Man.
It’s not the first time someone has turned He-Man into a feature film: Dolph Lundgren starred in 1987’s Masters of the Universe, a critical and box office bomb that also featured Frank Langella as arch-villain Skeletor. Its poor reception might have stemmed from the 1987 film deviating significantly from the original cartoon, angering fans. But frankly, it was just a bad, cheesy movie, though it still has its share of cult fans today.
This latest big-screen live-action adaptation has been languishing in development hell for nearly two decades. There were rumors in 2007 that John Woo would direct a He-Man feature for Warner Bros., but the project never got the green light. Sony Pictures gained the rights in 2009, and there were multiple script rewrites and much shuffling of possible directors (with John Chu, McG, and David S. Goyer among the candidates).
This went on until 2022, when Netflix acquired the rights on the heels of its success with a pair of animated shows starring Kyle Allen as He-Man. Netflix canceled the project the following year, citing budget concerns, so Allen never got that big-screen break. And Amazon MGM stepped in, tapping Travis Knight (Bumblebee, Kubo and the Two Strings) as director and casting Nicholas Galitzine (2021’s Cinderella, 100 Nights of Hero) as He-Man.
In addition to Galitzine, the cast includes Camila Mendes as Teela; Jared Leto as Keldor/Skeletor; Alison Brie as Professor Evelyn Powers, aka Evil-Lyn, lieutenant to Skeletor; Idris Elba as Duncan/Man-at-Arms; Morena Baccarin as the Sorceress of Castle Grayskull; Johannes Haukur as Malcolm/Fisto; James Purefoy and Charlotte Riley as King Randor and Queen Marlena, rulers of Eternia; Sasheer Zamata as Suzie, Adam/He-Man’s BFF on Earth; Kristen Wiig as Roboto; Jon Xue Zhang as Ram-Man; Kojo Attah as the bounty hunter Tri-Klops; Sam C. Wilson as cyborg/weapons expert Kronis/Trap-Jaw; and Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson as Goat Man.
We learn from the teaser trailer that when he was 10 years old, Adam Glenn, prince of Eternia and our future He-Man, crash-landed on Earth—the home planet of his ex-astronaut mother, Queen Marlena, who sent him there for protection from the forces of Skeletor. The now-grown Adam is an office drone with a penchant for nerd culture that doesn’t exactly impress human resources, and he has been searching online for his magic sword, convinced it will show him “the way home.” We suspect the sword he finds in a comic shop is just a replica, but soon Teela shows up to whisk him off to Eternia in a spaceship. Cue a series of battles and Adam tapping into the real magical sword’s power just in time to take on Skeletor.
Masters of the Universe hits theaters on June 5, 2026.
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