Masters of the Universe Trailer Gives Nicholas Galitzine He-Man’s Power
Masters of the Universe finally has a trailer, and the new movie looks like a colorful throwback adventure. Travis Knight is back after his delightful run with the Transformers franchise to take on another 80’s staple.
Masters of the Universe’s first look sees Nicholas Galitzine taking on the role of Adam Glenn. Prince Adam dipped out of Eternia as a boy in this incarnation of the character. He’s been hanging out on Earth, and apparently subjecting himself to corporate drudgery. But, that all changes for this dude when he’s called back to Eternia to grab the Sword of Grayskull and become He-Man.
Maybe the most simultaneously dreaded and anticipated element of Masters of the Universe is Jared Leto as Skeletor. He does exactly 0 talking in the trailer, so the jury is still out on how that will go. But, the look is 100% Saturday morning cartoon accurate. You have to admire the level of commitment to the bit radiating off of every single inch of this trailer. Everything about the clip is reaching for a kind of “classic 80s genre TV show” color grading that will pop on-screen. The effects know when to swing for the fences and when to be a little more clever about what’s going on.
Part of the real fun of Masters of the Universe is how toyetic the entire enterprise is. And, because of that, we have to have He-Man’s friends along for the ride. We’ve got Camila Mendes as Teela, Idris Elba bringing some fight with Man-at-Arms, and Alison Brie going full evil sorceress as Evil-Lyn. If Knight and this team just lean into the camp, they’ll do just fine.
Masters of the Universe finally gets a trailer
Aside from Knight’s involvement with Masters of the Universe after the better-than-people-remember Bumblebee. The other part of this project that has been a source of conversation is the long road to get here. It’s no secret that Amazon MGM Studios and Mattel have been trying to make He-Man happen on the big screen for a while. For a moment there, in the early 2020s, Netflix seemed poised to be the landing spot for a Masters of the Universe movie. After all, they’ve been the primary source for animated additions to the franchise for a decade now.
But, as often is the case in Hollywood, things didn’t come together on a timeline that the fans expected. Adam and Aaron Nee were attached as directors to that previous iteration of this project. Kyle Allen was supposed to lift that sword, as we see Galitzine do here. Simply put, a lot has changed, but curiously He-Man hasn’t As a character.
A lot of the social media chatters surrounding this project years ago thought that the people adapting Masters of the Universe would take some wild swings with the property, and that’s exactly what did not happen. I would go so far as to say, this is about as down the middle of the fairway of an adaptation for a beloved property that you’re gonna find. That sort of stuff matters in an era where fan bases are more fickle than they’ve ever been, with social media loud speakers attached to their hips to boot. So instead of going into this movie wondering how we’re straying from the source material, Night made the decision to lean all the way in. It’ll be interesting to see if that pays off!
(featured image: Amazon MGM Studios)
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