Masters of the Universe (2026)

While He-Man is a very recognisable figure in pop culture and been kept alive thanks to his cheesy 80s animated series, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, as well as several other adaptations in shows or comics, no one can confidently say that there’s been an overall solid version of his heroic tales. Some have their preferences and will no doubt hold their versions in the hearts even if they know of the poorer quality (there wouldn’t be so many memes if they didn’t), but whether it’s the original Filmation 80s cartoon (which was largely just made to sell toys), the 2002 Cartoon Network Toonami series (which provided some nice updates, but not enough to be a universally beloved version) or the recent Kevin James Netflix animated series (which came and went with little fanfare). Even when attempted as a live-action film in 1987 starring Frank Langella and Dolph Lundgren as the titular barbarian hero, it felt like a secret power that could never be wielded, but that didn’t stop another film giving it one more shot to see if they could stick the landing in 2026, and it’s still up in the air whether it did or not.

In the magical world of Eternia, the capital city of Eternos is attacked by Skeletor (voiced by Jared Leto), a villainous demon who wants to obtain the Sword of Power, a weapon capable of giving the wielder all the strength in the universe. After the king and queen are imprisoned, the young prince Adam is sent to the human world to safeguard the sword, but ends up losing it during the transfer, leaving him stuck on Earth until he can find it again. Now fully grown, Adam (played by Nicholas Galitzine) locates the sword, but this sets off a signal that pulls Skeletor’s forces to his location, with the more passive and inexperience prince needing to be saved by his childhood friend, Teela (played by Camila Mendes) who returns him to a now barren Eternia ruled by Skeletor. Even while in possession of the Sword of Power and having the ability to transform into the titular He-Man, his lack of combat skills makes the people of Eternia question their chosen hero, but with the support of Teela and her father, Man-of-Arms (played by Idris Elba), Adam will get his chance to fight Skeletor and, in the process, actually become the hero his planet needs.

Masters of the Universe is better than its 1987 live-action predecessor and is innocently likeable enough to feel in line with its cheesy, merchandise-driven 80s cartoon series, but isn’t able to escape the curse of mediocre He-Man releases. While the direction, cast, music and overall aesthetic work pretty well, the scripting, storyline and humor don’t follow suit.

The first eyebrow raising concern should be the film’s gargantuan budget of nearly $200 million, which is pretty big given the small cast with only a few notable names and fairly normal marketing campaign. This more than likely is because of the extensive production hell the film was stuck in for several years, starting back in 2007 when pitches were made for a new He-Man film, but none ever materialized. After several writers and directors opted out, and the rights to He-Man jumped from Warner Brothers to Netflix to eventually MGM, production officially started in 2024 with Travis Knight as director. This lengthy time in the oven explains a lot about how this film operates, with its key problem being that, while it has a pretty good retro energy that keeps its standard fantasy story from feeling too outdated, the components that make up its story, characters and pacing are all-over-the-place and doesn’t nail anything down in a way that’d benefit the plot it’s trying to tell. Considering the source material solely existed to sell toys, it’s not like it has a lot of quality content to work with, but they do a good job holding onto that cheesy 80s identity while still feeling like a modern flick, even incorporating a few choice elements that, while not properly explored, are beneficial to the narrative and even He-Man as a brand.

This likely comes from Knight’s involvement, who proved through his work on the 2019 Transformers spin-off movie, Bumblebee, that he’s able to grasp what people like about these franchises, and provide an experience that feels retro and authentic without being too old-school. Masters of the Universe is a light, enjoyable experience that features fun characters performed by exuberant actors, contains flashy imagery that doesn’t always look real but is colorful, vibrant and 80s-tastic, and even if the story written by Aaron and Adam Nee, Alex Litvak and Michael Finch is very basic and not the most compelling, you’re not bored while watching it. With that said, the screenplay is where the true problems lie, and even though Aaron and Adam Nee, Chris Butler and David Callaham have all worked on good entertaining projects in the past and could’ve worked great with this IP, something just didn’t click.  While the pacing is mostly fine, the emotional moments rarely hit, there are some neat nuggets added to liven up this old brand, but they aren’t big enough to be gamechangers nor are they explored enough to greatly impact the story or characters in the long run, the humor ranges from inoffensive, to weird and obtrusive, and while the action, characters and general personality of the film are all pretty likeable, the flimsy story, poorly executed narrative concepts and fairly lukewarm script makes everything feel a little shallow.

The cast of He-Man are a little flat as they were designed to be toys with cool designs and power sets instead of compelling characters, so every adaptation since has done there best to give them anything to work with (to mixed results). The trailers for this movie presented something akin to Guardians of the Galaxy or Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, where the story kind of takes a backseat against the personality of the world and charm of the cast, so there was a lot banking on not only getting the right people to portray these parts, but making sure they had enough character to not feel one-note and forgettable. Thankfully, a lot of the actors are pretty good and make all these characters (however small or generically written they may be) pretty likeable. Some really don’t get a chance to stand out, like Kristen Wiig as a killer robot reprogrammed into a service droid or Gary Martin as a talking green tiger called Battle Beast, and James Purefoy and Charlotte Riley are entirely useless as Adam’s parents, but otherwise, the rest are pretty memorable.

Nicholas Galitzine is a pretty great choice for He-Man, not just because his physique is spot on and he really looks the part when in the barbarian outfit, but he also captures the kind, passive and easily flustered side of Adam as well, adding a more spotlighted difference between warrior and prince that could’ve been more interesting if explored more, but regardless, he’s a very charming lead. Camila Mendes and Idris Elba are good charming support for the lead, Jared Leto does a mostly good job as Skeletor, Alison Brie is yucking it up as Skeletor’s right-hand woman, Sasheer Zamata and Christian Vunipola play their generic roles well enough that the human realm scenes aren’t entirely pointless, and Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, Jon Xue Zhang, Sam C. Wilson, James Wilkinson, and Christiaan Bettridge do a nice job playing secondary heroes or villains.

With such a giant budget, some of that would’ve gone into the visuals and how the environment would look, and the world of Eternia does its duty at being a familiar fantasy location, but one that holds onto the specific look of the classic He-Man 80s cartoon. This is a very 80s looking movie, which greatly benefits how this environment feels and looks, with the costuming by Richard Sale having a toy-ish but still creative look, the production design by Guy Hendrix feeling like standard fantasy/sci-fi fare, but with a fluorescent twinge of grandeur, and the color palette is bristling with vibrant pastels and bombastic 80s toning, with flaring lights, prominent pink and purples, and weird effects to boot. The visuals are on a bit of a mixed bag, with some things like a few of the creature designs and Skeletor in particular looking pretty good, and other moments during the action and on certain characters looking a little flat but always being held up by the fact that they look creative and full of personality.

The action is pretty good, not having the most interesting choreography, but feeling loose and fun enough to be over-the-top with some of the moves so that it leaves a playful impression, and it’s just cool to see a figure like He-Man throwing and whacking bad guys around in live action on the big screen. The music also props these moments up a lot, with a score by Daniel Pemperton that also feels 80s-coded with a strong synth backing, rock-ballad type instrumentation and composition, and a hard-core guitar riff leading the charge (performed by Brian May), and it’s used to great effect throughout to bring a minimal but still noticeable sense of presence to this feature. Ironically, while it wins with its score, it fails with its soundtrack, with several songs being placed throughout that are good choices for this movie, but are used so sparingly and hastily, and are placed in very awkward moments, that you don’t even get enough time to admire their usage.

Despite his stature, strength and seeming inability to die despite never having a properly great adaptation, He-Man will still need to keep searching for a great feature/series (even his sister, She-Ra has had better success with her critically acclaimed Netflix animated series), but at least Masters of the Universe can say it will provide a fun time. It probably won’t be able to do much else as the story and script are very run-of-the-mil, but the cast is likeable, the environments are colorful and flashy, and the direction brings a retro identity and plays up the franchises roots without shutting out newcomers. Maybe doesn’t have the power but at least wields the heart to say that it’s a worthy hero.