Masters Of The Universe’s Lead Actor Says Reboot Is ‘Quite Different’ From The Original He-Man Show, And New Rumor May Reveal How
Hollywood has spent nearly 20 years trying to get a new Masters of the Universe movie off the ground, and thankfully for fans of the long-running sci-fi/fantasy franchise, the project made its biggest strides yet in 2024. A few months after the news came in of Travis Knight helming the reboot, The Idea of You’s Nicholas Galitzine was tapped to play the new live-action Prince Adam/He-Man, and we’ve been peppered with more casting announcements since then. Specific plot details, on the other hand, are being kept secret, though Galitzine has shared that the Masters of the Universe reboot will be “quite different” than the original He-Man TV show, and a new rumor may point to how this will be handled.
What Nicholas Galitzine Said About Masters Of The Universe
In an interview with THR, Galitzine was asked if he’s binge-watched any of the old He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon, which ran from 1983 to 1985, as well as how the new movie will compare to the series that started airing just a year after the Mattel toy launched. The actor answered:
Look, what I will say is our version is quite different from the original animation, which we all agree was camp within its own right and worked so well for the time. But there’s been a couple of iterations, obviously since there was the Revelation version of Master of the Universe, and the comics themselves. And we’re very much treating our script as as Bible, you know. But it’s kind of amazing to hear what this show meant to a lot of people. It was really formative for a lot of people, so it’s exciting to do something that will have a nostalgia element as well as hopefully attract a bunch of new fans.
As Nicholas Galitzine, Masters of the Universe: Revelation and its follow-up Revolution, which can both be streamed with a Netflix subscription, are among the more recent adaptations of this mythology, with others including the new He-Man and the Masters of the Universe animated series that’s also on Netflix and more geared towards younger audiences, as well as the comics. Judging from Galitzine’s statement, it sounds like while the new Masters of the Universe movie will follow the basic framework of this property, it will also put some new spins on the material to make it stand out from previous versions. But exactly how much will the reboot color outside the lines, so to speak?
What The New Masters Of The Universe Rumor Is Claiming
According to scooper Daniel Richtman (via ComicBookMovie), Masters of the Universe will introduce Galitzine’s Adam as a regular guy who’s working a “boring office job” in the “real world,” i.e. Earth, and “the whole He-Man and Masters of the Universe story are tales he heard as a little kid.” While this information should be taken with a massive grain of salt for now, it does line up with the synopsis that’s been making the rounds:
10-year-old Prince Adam who crashed to Earth in a spaceship and was separated from his magical Power Sword—the only link to his home on Eternia. After tracking it down almost two decades later, Prince Adam is whisked back across space to defend his home planet against the evil forces of Skeletor. But to defeat such a powerful villain, Prince Adam will first need to uncover the mysteries of his past and become He-Man: the most powerful man in the Universe!
Assuming all this is true, it won’t be the first time that a Masters of the Universe movie has incorporated Earth into the story. The 1987 film saw our planet being targeted by Skeletor, He-Man’s arch-nemesis, and two teenagers and a detective being drawn into the conflict. In this case though, the reboot would establish a direct tie between Adam and Earth, a major departure from the source material. However, it does seem like there’s a contradiction between the new rumor and the synopsis. Does Adam actually remember that he hails from Eternia, or did he somehow lose his memories of that other world or even get sent to Earth at such an earlier age that he’d have no clear memories to retain, hence the stories?
Hopefully the coming months will bring official clarification on what we can expect narratively from the Masters of the Universe reboot, which opens in theaters on June 5, 2026. Nicholas Galitzine’s He-Man will be joined by Camila Mendes as Teela, Alison Brie as Evil-Lyn, Idris Elba as Man-at-Arms, Jared Leto as Skeletor, Sam C. Wilson as Trap Jaw, Kojo Attah as Tri-Klops and Hafthor Bjornsson as Goat Man.
