I’m Worried the New Masters of the Universe Movie Is Going to Make A Big Mistake With He-Man (Again)

Anyone who’s been following the movie business for the last two decades knows that a modern live-action Masters of the Universe adaptation has been as plagued with endless delays as a live-action Akira film or Martin Scorsese’s The Devil in the White City adaptation. Through the late 2000s and 2010s, countless filmmakers, creative visions, and different film studios were attached to bring this 1980s pop culture fixture to life. The likes of McG, Aaron, and Adam Nee were all attached to direct at different points, while studios like Netflix, Warner Bros., and Sony/Columbia were all once eyeballed to bring this production to life.

A new live-action Masters of the Universe film finally began shooting this year. Bumblebee director and LAIKA mastermind Travis Knight is helming the film, while actor Nicholas Galitzine is playing Adam Grayskull/He-Man, with Camila Mendes, Jared Leto, Alison Brie, Idris Elba, and Morena Baccarin taking on key supporting roles. Cameras have been rolling on the feature for months to prepare for its June 2026 theatrical debut. However, there’s already a potential problem with this production that should instill fear in all moviegoers, whether they’re long-term fans of this property or not.

Here’s the Major Issue With Masters of the Universe‘s Story

Both the official plot summary and leaked set photos from 2026’s Masters of the Universe have confirmed that this motion picture will take place significantly on Earth, rather than in the mystical realm of Eternia. The plot apparently begins with Galitzine’s Grayskull arriving on Earth when he’s ten years old and then having to reclaim his superpowers and He-Man identity twenty years later. Already, this concept should be setting off warning bells for moviegoers around the world.

For starters, it’s bizarre that Masters of the Universe is doing yet another generic origin story for a character as surface-level and easy to understand as He-Man. Then there’s the fact that grounding so much of this production on Earth already mirrors the problems of the last live-action Masters of the Universe movie (1987). Audiences aren’t interested in seeing He-Man wander around the streets of New York or other American locales: they want to see grand fantasy imagery they can’t get in any other genre. Unfortunately, that would require embracing “outlandish” impulses Hollywood films largely eschew in favor of “realism.”

Just look at how 2017’s The Dark Tower, for instance, took Idris Elba’s The Gunslinger to New York City for budgetary reasons, instead of setting the whole story in otherworldly realm of Mid-World. Marvel’s first Thor movie, meanwhile, grounded the God of Thunder in New Mexico to help acclimate moviegoers to the idea of aliens existing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Masters of the Universe going down the road of spending so much time with Adam Grayskull on Earth isn’t bad just because it’s “different” from most past Masters of the Universe media: it’s just a frustratingly routine approach to realizing such a grandiose character in live-action.

[RELATED: Masters of the Universe First Official Look Teases He-Man (and the Power Sword)]

He-Man Should Embrace the Silliness!

It’s not difficult to imagine screenwriter Chris Butler and various Amazon MGM Studios executives encouraging this approach to He-Man thanks to the pop culture reputation this character has cultivated in recent years. For many viewers, He-Man is not a nostalgic part of their childhood, but rather the star of YouTube videos like “HEYYEYAAEYAAAEYEAYAA” or lewd satirical Robot Chicken sketches. The thought may be that He-Man needs to be sold as an everyman “just like you” to be accepted in modern pop culture.

Unfortunately, history has shown that movies like The Dark Tower opting for generic Earthbound locales tend to flop and slip away quickly from people’s minds. Meanwhile, the lush heightened domains of Pandora from the Avatar movies or Barbie’s vision of Barbie Land have dominated the box office and cultural imagination in the 2020s. These titles weren’t afraid to take visual risks even in more conceptually mundane environments, like the offices of Mattel executives.

It’s possible Masters of the Universe will still imbue that level of imagination in certain sequences set on Eternia. Certainly, Knight’s Bumblebee prologue, which gloriously displayed G1-inspired Transformers duking it out on Cybertron, shows he isn’t afraid to indulge in the outlandish. For now, though, this new Masters of the Universe film’s emphasis on Earthbound backdrops is a petrifying proposition suggesting this feature will follow in the footsteps of countless previous lackluster blockbusters, including the last subpar Masters of the Universe movie. Here’s to hoping this June 2026 blockbuster will “have the power” necessary to realize grounding your ludicrous source material in everyday reality isn’t a guaranteed recipe for box office success.

Masters of the Universe hits theaters everywhere on June 5, 2025.