I went into Masters of the Universe with one simple request: Please don’t fuck up my favorite childhood show.
I was a hardcore fan of the cartoon. I owned Castle Grayskull. Snake Mountain. Battle Cat. Man-At-Arms. Trap Jaw. Skeletor, and Pretty much every He-Man action figure I could convince my parents to buy me. And, like every kid who grew up with those toys, I eventually had to deal with that infamous rubber band hidden inside the figures—the one that inevitably snapped —Convincing my parents I needed another He-Man toy was a recurring thing. Hell, I still collect those toys today.
I also saw the 1987 live-action film starring Dolph Lundgren and Frank Langella in theaters. It wasn’t the best adaptation, but Langella understood the assignment, and there was enough cheesy fun to make it watchable. So yes, I’m at the target audience for this 2026, Masters of the Universe reboot movie.
This new adaptation wisely takes a different approach. It drops us immediately into Eternia. The film moves quickly, introducing the kingdom, magical relics, and familiar faces at a pace that occasionally feels overwhelming. There’s almost too much mythology to unpack. The Sword of Power, in particular, deserved a little more explanation.
it begins with young Prince Adam escaping his home world after Skeletor launches his assault and throws Eternia into chaos. As result, Adam grows up on Earth for protection from Skeletor. Fast Forward a few years later, we see adult Adam, working a nine to five job, living his life like a regular human being. But he’s homesick and nostalgic about Eternia. A place he barely remembers. He sketches landscapes, castles, and faces that have faded with time.
My favorite running gag is that he remembers people but not their actual names. A warrior with a giant metal fist? He simply calls him Fisto (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson). The guy who attacks every obstacle by charging headfirst into it? Ram-Man (Jon Xue Zhang) It’s a clever little touch that somehow makes these wonderfully ridiculous names feel completely natural.
Ironically, I found myself wishing the movie had stayed on Earth a little longer. I wanted to see who raised Adam, and other mundane Earthly things. Nicholas Galitzine is incredibly endearing as Adam. He plays him with enough vulnerability that his eventual transformation into He-Man actually feels earned. Underneath all the muscles and mythology, this is still a story about a young man trying to figure out where he belongs.
Jared Leto is a pleasant surprise as Skeletor. He wisely avoids trying to reinvent the character. Instead, he fully embraces everything that made Skeletor memorable in the first place—the theatrical arrogance, the over-the-top menace, the deliciously ridiculous dialogue. It’s probably the closest live-action version we’ve ever gotten to the Filmation cartoon.
Alison Brie also makes the most of her limited screen time as Evil-Lyn. There’s an interesting dynamic between her and Skeletor—part loyalty, part fear, part sexual tension—that the film only hints at but never fully explores. Duncan, also known as Man-At-Arms (Idris Elba) and Trap Jaw (Sam C. Wilson) look like someone simply reached into my toy box from 1985 and brought them to life. That alone made me smile. Duncan’s storyline carries more emotional weight than I expected, becoming one of the film’s stronger redemption arcs.
Camila Mendes nails it as Teela. But I wanted to see more of a backstory from characters like The Sorceres (Morena Baccarin), Queen Marlena (Charlotte Riley), and King Randor (James Purefoy). Not everything works. Cringer’s CGI feels a little too digital for my taste. I kept wishing he’d looked a little rougher, a little more tangible. There are also a few sexual jokes centered around Fisto’s name that probably land better with adults than with kids.
Then there’s the soundtrack. Hearing Queen’s Princes of the Universe song show up caught me completely off guard. I still firmly maintain that using the music of Queen outside of Highlander should probably require some sort of special permit.
The film also carries some flashes of Thor: Ragnarok—bright colors, cosmic fantasy, and a willingness to laugh at its own mythology without completely undermining it. Dolph Lundgren’s cameo is pure fan service, and I loved every second of it. By the end, Orko finally makes his appearance, and the brief tease of She-Ra makes it pretty clear that this universe is only getting started.
Director Travis Knight understands something many legacy adaptations miss. People don’t just remember the cartoon. They remember the toys, and all the imagination that followed. The afternoons spent on the living room floor creating stories, and fan fiction that were often better than anything on television. That’s what this movie captures. Is it perfect? Definitely not. But is it fun and entertaining? Absolutely. And it also understands exactly what Masters of the Universe was always supposed to be. A giant toy box. And for two hours, it felt like Gen-X kids like myself finally got the He-Man movie we had been waiting nearly forty years to see.
MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE (2026). THREE OUT OF FIVE POPCORN BAGS🍿🍿🍿
Rod Rioja 