The new Masters Of The Universe movie proves that sometimes you just can’t separate the man from the toys. And in the case of its director, Travis Knight, that can only be a good thing. “These characters have lived with me since childhood,” Knight tells Empire. “Stepping into Eternia was a homecoming, one that carried with it both joy and responsibility.”
The man behind Transformers spin-off Bumblebee (also the boss of stop-motion powerhouse Laika) is excited to finally give the world a glimpse of how he’s tackling an action-figure line and cartoon series not seen in live action since Dolph Lundgren’s He-Man biffed Frank Langella’s Skeletor in 1987. Check out the trailer here:
“I can’t wait for long-time fans to see and feel how much care we’ve taken,” says Knight, “and for new audiences to discover how epic, strange and beautiful this world can be.”
With that in mind, here’s ten things the Masters Of The Universe trailer tells us about that epic, strange new world…
1) Welcome to Eternia
The opening seconds don’t mess about with showing off all the elaborate world-building that’s gone into creating Knight’s vision of He-Man’s home-planet, Eternia. Unlike the relatively minimalist ’80s Filmation cartoon and 1987 movie, we can safely expect this adventure to show locations like the capital Eternos City, villain lair Snake Mountain (seen towards the end of the trailer) and, of course, the imposing Castle Grayskull in all their sci-fi/fantasy-blending glory. Oh, and that bird? That’ll be the Sorceress (Morena Baccarin) in feathery form.
2) The Sword of Power
The blade that turns Adam from an everyday princeling (who we first meet as a little kid played by Artie Wilkinson-Hunt) into The Most Powerful Man In The Universe – gets a big shiny money shot. This is because it’s central to the story, but also because it makes one thing utterly clear: this movie is unapologetically faithful to the style and design choices of the toys and the cartoon.
3) He/Him
The pronouns on Adam’s HR desk nameplate form a neat little visual gag which connects the character’s preposterously masculine ’80s heritage (and silly moniker) with progressive modern-day mores. This Adam, it is clear, is less a dull prince than a regular, relatable, grown-up-on-Earth-guy (played by Red, White And Royal Blue’s Nicholas Galitzine), who clearly has a thing about his lost sword, and is destined for some big-time fish-out-of-water antics when he returns to the home world from which he was exiled. (He also, you’ll notice, likes wearing pink – just like the original Prince Adam.)
4) The Mannequin
If you grew up with Masters Of The Universe and have any knowledge of the toys, ’toons and crazy lore, then you will not be disappointed by this trailer’s Easter egg count. For instance, the Conan-like store mannequin so unrelentingly gripping the Sword of Power is a dead ringer for Vikor, the horned-helmeted prototype for He-Man. You may also see some retro Big Jim toys on the shelves behind the shop assistant – a nod to He-Man’s action-figure precursor at Mattel.
5) The vehicles
Okay, so not everything is deeply faithful to the look of the toys. Fortunately, what we can see swooshing through the air are some laser-blasting vehicles which do something new and, dare we say, sexy with the original design concepts for the Roton (originally a buzzsaw and barrel with eyes), the Fright Fighter (purple dragonfly thing) and, as seen towards the end of the trailer, the Collector (frog-like clawed thing).
6) The Right Stuff strut
It’s only briefly seen, but at some point we are going to be treated to a heroic slo-mo group shot executed in the style of The Right Stuff. If you pause here, you can make out the bulk of the good-guy line-up: in addition to Adam, there’s Idris Elba’s Man-At-Arms (complete with helmet and bushy ’tache), Camila Mendes’ Teela (notably spared the toy’s skimpy swimsuit look), plus Mekaneck (who has a periscoping neck), Ram Man (who rams things with his springy legs) and, played by Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, Fisto (who, er, has a massive fist). Silly? Cool? How about both.
7) Skeletor!
Here he is: the Lord of Destruction himself. This is our first look at Knight’s Skeletor (played by Jared Leto), and he hasn’t copped out: he is absolutely someone who has a skull for a face (rendered with digital effects, obviously), with a blue-muscled body and a big stick with a ram’s skull on the end of it. Will they keep the comical high-pitched voice he had in the cartoons, though?
8) Spikor!
While there’s a lot of CGI on show (as well as Skeletor’s face, the green tiger Cringer and orange-furred villain Beast Man are pure VFX), the brief flash of the purple-pronged baddie Spikor makes it clear that Knight’s Masters will be replete with heavy-duty prosthetics to bring certain characters to action-figure-tastic life. Also glimpsed: the red, horned Goat Man (Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson), and fan favourite Trap Jaw (Sam C Wilson), both of whom are full-body-prosthetic creations.
9) He has the Power
This trailer makes no bones about it (heh): Knight’s movie is very much an origin story for He-Man. So unlike the 1987 film with Dolph Lundgren, we will see him transform from Adam into the barely clothed Champion of Grayskull, by holding aloft his Sword of Power and saying the magic words that virtually every kid who grew up in the ’80s knew. And, once he changes, he is very much going to whup bad-guy ass in superheroic style.
10) The score
Reassuringly, Knight has Daniel Pemberton on scoring duties, and if what we’ve heard here is anything to go by, he’s going to bring a little bit of Spider-Verse-ish cool to otherwise expectedly bombastic proceedings. Plus, as those very final two notes tease, we may also be hearing a new take on the cartoon’s endlessly catchy theme tune. All together now: “I have the power to pick up a flower…” (Please note: those weren’t the actual words.)
