For kids growing up in the early 1980s, a scantily clad dude with booty shorts and a blonde bob was literally the coolest person in this, or any other galaxy. The Filmation cartoon He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, along with its super-popular toy line from Mattel, was a massive hit when it debuted in 1983, and along with Transformers and Ghostbusters is one of those nostalgia properties that seems to live on in shared memory. And, even though there have been several He-Man cartoon reboots — including the critically acclaimed continuation series from Kevin Smith, Masters of the Universe: Revelations (2021) and Masters of the Universe: Revolution (2024) — the man with the power sword hasn’t been depicted in live-action since Dolph Lundgren played the role in 1987.
That is, until now. A new live-action Masters of the Universe movie is coming very soon. And from the look of the first full-length trailer, the franchise is embracing its planet-crossing sci-fi roots.
So far, there are two trailers for Masters of the Universe. The first was a brief teaser trailer that focused on ‘80s nostalgia, including scenes from the iconic opening of the original animated series. But the second just-released trailer brings the sci-fi heat. Here, we see Adam Glenn (Nicholas Galitzine), a nerdy guy on Earth, searching for a lost sword that he believes belongs to him. Soon, we find ourselves on the planet Eternia, where Adam embraces his new destiny, fighting against Skeletor (Jared Leto) and his minions.
Does the notion of Adam/He-Man being like a kind of Clark Kent figure, intentionally sent to Earth, away from his home planet, constitute a retcon or revision from the original swords and sorcery origins of the cartoon? Oddly enough, no! This sort of sci-fi element has been baked into He-Man since the beginning.
In the 1983 Masters of the Universe episode “Teela’s Quest,” it was revealed that Adam’s mother, Queen Marlena, was actually an astronaut from Earth who crashlanded on the planet Eternia, and eventually married King Randor, Adam’s father. In the new trailer, we see Adam’s mother, played by Charlotte Riley, explain why she sent Adam away to Earth as a young child. This seems to invert the old origin story; though it’s possible that the new version of Marlena is also originally from Earth, too.
“Teela’s Quest” was penned by veteran genre writer Paul Dini, who would later write for Batman: The Animated Series, Batman: Beyond, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, among others.
But the sci-fi pedigree of the original Masters of the Universe isn’t just limited to one episode. Various sci-fi legends, including Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski, Star Trek: The Animated Series writer David Wise as well as Star Trek: The Original Series scribe, Dorthoy Fontana, all penned He-Man stories for the original run of the show.
Again, you might hazily recall that magic and fantasy tropes dominated the old-school He-Man, and that’s fairly true. But the show was just as obsessed with interdimensional portals, time travel, and yes, as the trailer makes clear, space travel. Even the 1987 film adaptation had a planet-hopping plot at its center, as He-Man and friends used a “Cosmic Key” to come to Earth.
So, the new Masters of the Universe may look like a fantasy mashup we’ve seen a million times before, but the bones of Castle Grayskull are vintage, old-school science fiction and fantasy.
