Soooo…. He-Man, huh? Look, I’m not saying this movie can’t be a fun swords-and-sandals fantasy romp. But the decision to make such a movie in the year 2026 is quite the gamble, given that He-Man is hardly at the epicenter of modern nerd culture. The key demographic for this property are those who were alive to see the iconic 80s cartoon show He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983). But that demographic isn’t exactly the most frequent theater-going group, and there’s no guarantee that they’re drawn to He-Man at their current age. It’s possible that one of the biggest reasons that Mattel feels an adaptation is worth the squeeze at the box office is the property’s recent success in Netflix-produced shows, most notably Masters of the Universe: Revelation (2021). This was an updated follow-up to the original show, with crisp new animation and an expansion of focus on the franchise’s roster of protagonists. It’s a pretty great watch at times, particularly season 1. Recent properties like that are possibly showing evidence that the franchise can attract newer, younger fans, thus making a theatrical release worth the effort for Mattel/Amazon/Sony.

For the uninitiated, the 1980s cartoon followed Prince Adam, a protector of the planet Eternia and Castle Grayskull. Imbued with incredible strength, when possessing the Sword of Power: Prince Adam transforms into the hero He-Man, a superpowered Übermensch who is likely the most powerful person in his galaxy. The character, and world, draws from a multitude of inspirations, but perhaps most obvious is that of Conan the Barbarian.

As for the current reboot, this isn’t the character’s first foray into live action. As 1987 saw the release of the original Masters of the Universe, at the peak of the property’s popularity, and starring a Dolph Lundgren who looks like he was grown in a lab specifically to portray the sword-wielding muscle-head. The new film stars the much less famous Nicholas Galitzine. In the role of the iconic villain Skeletor, the film has tapped Jared Leto – which seems like such an unforced error. Perhaps the studio hasn’t fully accepted the actor’s more recent poor reputation. It seems that the studio needed a big name on the marquee to counterbalance Galitzine’s lack of familiarity, but does Skeletor even need a big time celebrity for the part? You’re looking at a big ass skull for his screentime, with only the voice being distinctive of the actor chosen. But to digress, the new film does have an official synopsis, which is using some well-worn genre tropes to ease the audience into the story:

Fleeing a devastating civil war, ten-year-old Adam Glenn, Crown Prince of the planet Eternia, is spirited away to his mother’s home planet Earth, separating him from his ancestor’s Power Sword. Twenty years later, a now-adult Adam must return to his father’s home planet Eternia and rediscover his lost birthright, becoming He-Man, the most powerful man in the universe, and leading the few remaining warriors of Eternia against the evil forces of Skeletor.

Well, that’s one way to approach this story. I feel it’s interesting that the studio is going with a “fish out of water” framing device for the movie, placing the title character in our world before rejoining the fantasy realm. On the one hand, I imagine that executives feel this is the safer route because it may be more relatable to newer viewers who are unfamiliar with the franchise. On the other hand, I would assume that longtime fans of the property would prefer a story that is set firmly in Eternia, without the inclusion of the real world. It’s worth noting that the original 1987 film similarly includes a large section set on earth, partially due to budgetary restraints. So there is a precedent, and it’s possible that the 2026 adaptation has similar budgetary concerns, just at a different scale.

But I think the fact that this trope appears in a He-Man movie not once, but twice is evidence of some trepidation that Hollywood has with this property. Perhaps the people signing the checks don’t believe you can do a 2 hour movie set in this very strange land, where everyone is dressed bizarrely and talk in such a grandiose, old-timey way. The logic being, that you need a more human and real-world element involved to keep more casual audiences engaged. This dilemma gets at the heart of screenwriting. While something like The Lord of the Rings has an established, well-respected source material with mature themes to draw from to make the narrative compelling to general audiences – the source material of Masters of the Universe, on the other hand, is primarily Saturday morning cartoons with a much lower standard of writing. This isn’t to say a very talented writer couldn’t cook up something compelling with these characters that still keeps them embedded in the mythology of Eternia for the duration of the runtime. Yet, perhaps there isn’t a lot of confidence among Hollywood producers that this is achievable.

Nonetheless, the modern Masters of the Universe would hope to avoid the mostly negative reception of its 1987 predecessor. With that in mind, the film’s most useful analogue is possibly Thor (2011). Another film following a hulking God-like superhero, with a bombastic way of speaking and a rather bizarre mythology. But that film also mortgaged the story on having the character land on earth, getting him (and the audience) in contact with the likes of Natalie Portman, and a planet full of humanoids who don’t require much effort to relate to the viewers. That film’s story structure led to some positive results, in a film that experienced a mostly warm reception. Masters of the Universe is very much trying to follow in those footsteps, with our best look at how that will be depicted in the latest trailer below:

Watch Trailer

Well, those Thor comparisons are a lot more pronounced and ubiquitous than we expected. Hi Idris Elba. This is the film’s Trailer 2, and as expected it is much more action packed than the prior preview, hoping to garner viewers by showing off the special effects. Story wise, the plot (at least as it’s presented) seems very thin and cliche. Hero separated from birthright, returns to regain birthright and reclaim who he really is. But there’s not much else going on, at least not in this preview. The effects are big and gaudy, but sometimes big and gaudy fits the vibe when it’s a property as campy as this. Some of the effects look too cartoonish, but it’s difficult to determine if that’s just due to those shots being unfinished prior to release.  Overall, if you’re expecting this movie to be an epic on the scale of Dune, what they have here is going to fall short. But if your expectations are this is a campy movie, primarily geared at kids, with a tongue-in-cheek approach to its Saturday morning cartoon level theatrics, then the look here kind of fits. It’s big, bright, colorful and showy, but something closer to a Nickelodeon-produced movie, rather than something you expect to get nominated for Best Visual Effects. Overall, I can get on board with this being a rather light romp with some candy coated effects and hammy acting.

My issue is rather the story will have anything interesting about it, or will it just be a bland repeat of super familiar ideas? Even the scene where Galitzine is taking advice from Elba, the short glimpse comes off as derivative of so many “protagonist gets a pep talk” moments, where scenes like this should be where the movie energizes the audience by inspiring you to root for the main character. To be fair, it’s such a small look at the scene that we can’t write it off entirely; it’s just that what is shown, and the rather unremarkable dialogue, doesn’t inspire much confidence. With that said, the costumes actually look great and true to how these characters should appear in live-action. We’ll see if Galitzine can act the part, but he certainly looks the part as both Prince Adam and He-Man. Skeletor’s design looks sublime – he’s the cartoon baddie come to life, replete with a wickedly devilish voice. It seems like a presentation where you’ll hardly be reminded that Leto is portraying the character, which is likely good news for the movie’s box office.

There’s enough ingredients here to make this an entertaining diversion that you don’t take too seriously, in the same vein as the recent Mario and Sonic flicks. But even those movies have enough competent writing to get their audiences invested in and rooting for the characters. That will be one of the big challenges for Masters of the Universe, especially since the plot itself looks so repetitive. It’s the type of movie to look forward to with relatively low expectations, however, as there’s a world where this all goes left, and ends up being one of the lousier tentpole releases of the year. If that happens, at least the memes will be immaculate.

Masters of the Universe hopes to show it still has the power when it drops in theaters everywhere on June 5th, 2026.