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Will Masters of the Universe Reboot Have The Power To Make He-Man Cool Again?

by Jill Pantozzi | 2:45 pm, July 31st, 2012


Let’s be honest here, I’m a She-Ra kind of gal but He-Man is certainly one of those 80s icons I appreciate (and not only for his awesome dance moves). But like most beloved childhood franchises, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe is prime for a reboot and it just so happens to already be in the works. G.I. Joe: Retaliation director Jon M. Chu is taking up the Sword of Grayskull. 

From what we know so far, the new film will be based mainly on Mattel’s original toy line and not the 1983 animated He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, the Gary Goddard-directed 1987 Masters of the Universe film starring Dolph Lundgren, or the 2002 animated update. So that means they can do just about anything with it. Not like that wouldn’t have been the case anyway but, you know, sky’s the limit and all.

In case you’re not familiar with his work, Chu is also responsible for Step Up 2 and Step Up 3D, and the documentary Justin Bieber: Never Say Never. I can honestly say I’ve never seen any of his work and thanks to G.I. Joe: Retaliation being delayed “to convert it to 3-D” (*cough*sure*cough*), I won’t be seeing any of it soon.

“Sony Pictures and Escape Artists have attempted to launch the project several times based on a script by Alex Litvak and Mike Finch, entitled Grayskull,” writes The Hollywood Reporter. “Escape Artists partners Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal and Steve Tisch are producing.”

No word on whether the project will continue from that or start fresh. It’s interesting timing considered we just reported on DreamWorks Animation purchasing Classic Media, a deal which included the rights to Filmation animated series. Could we get a live-action He-Man and an animated He-Man film at the same time? I wouldn’t put it past Hollywood.

Regardless, what are your thoughts on He-Man coming to the big screen again? And, prematurely, who could you see playing him? How about Karen Gillan for Teela?

(via The Hollywood Reporter)

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  • Anonymous

    I want to believe…

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000106532602 Kelly Jaye

     Confused, the 1983 cartoon was based off the original toyline.  Was there some ’60′s or ’70′s version of He-man that no one ever heard of?

  • http://twitter.com/Romeobluez david mancha

    karen gillan would be perfect for teela,Chris Hemsworth as heman,John Rhys-Davies as man of arms

  • http://www.thenerdybird.com/ Jill Pantozzi

    No, that’s correct. What I meant was, this film isn’t going to be taken directly from the plot or storyline of the 83 series. They’re just using the characters.

  • Anonymous

    Again?

  • http://profiles.google.com/fluffywarthog1029 m h

    Good god, if this happens, I really hope they preserve the always-unintentional amount of camp.

  • http://www.facebook.com/KeldorTheCursed Matt Kayser

     The toyline was around for a while prior to the cartoon and had it’s own story without Prince Adam, Cringer, Orko or many of the other elements that people (regrettably?) remember He-Man for.  They were more like Conan, if anything, with some Star Wars tech thrown in.

    I wouldn’t mind them keeping the Adam/He-man connection, but anything else from the cartoon can go (For the record, I like the cartoon, but I feel we should start fresh with something a little more like the original stories).

  • Anonymous

    The big finish will be a 3D dance off at Castle Greyskull.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_R7GVNIKWG3S2UTHEQOMSZXT4M4 Anna B

    They can try to make it cool, but honestly, I’d see it whether it was cool or not. I sat optimistically through the likes of Street Fighter, GI Joe, and God help me, the Transformers. I will likely sit through this one whether critics pan it or not.

    I didn’t think the (first) Mortal Kombat live action movie was bad, but I’m told it’s horrible. There were a couple of other movies I enjoyed that many loudly hated. I may have bad taste in movies.

  • http://wrongsirwrong.blogspot.com/ Magic Xylophone

    Lousy director to make lousy film, updates at 11. In other news, dog bites man.

  • http://twitter.com/Nathiest Nathiest

    They already successfully rebooted the series a few years back.  

  • http://www.thenerdybird.com/ Jill Pantozzi

    As an animated series, as mentioned in the post. This is going to be a live-action, big screen film.

  • http://www.facebook.com/englerp Engler Pascal

    If it had been a reboot in  form of an animated series.(Like i hoped when i read the headline), i personally would have  been rather optimistic since i rather enjoy the current incarnations of Thundercats and Scooby Doo.  (I sadly haven’t seen MLP:FIM yet, so i can’t say anything about it. It’s on my too-see list, though).

    As a live action film: After Transformers and GI-Joe, i’m rather skeptical, to put it mildly.

  • http://twitter.com/smoke_tetsu Smoke Tetsu

    Too bad Dolph Lungren is too old at this point to reprise the role. :P

  • http://twitter.com/EliasAlgorithm Elias Algorithm

    “We’re making a new one but it isn’t a remake, it’s more faithful to the original material”. — everyone who has ever directed a remake of anything.

  • http://twitter.com/bingbangboom Saleem Noorali

    I remember there was a script a few years ago called “Greyskull” but they were not sure how to handle the movie or something. Heard it was great. I think the thing with Prince Adam just needs to be done once ala Captain America. Conan in space is a good theme, again similar to Thor. Create the world and make it believable. Getting “He-Man” as a thing might be hard. They can just say it is an ancient language and means “Master of the Universe”

    In the script, Skelator was He-Man’s uncle that tried to kill his brother for the throne.

  • http://www.spaceunicorn.net Jayme

    I really enjoyed the first Mortal Kombat movie, myself. It still holds up for me.

    The original He-Man cartoon was actually quite terrible. I should know, I have it on DVD. They probably can’t do worse with the movie. I am curious to see how it turns out and will watch it, no doubt.

    Now to see about getting my hands on those She-Ra DVDs they released a few years back…

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