He-Man is actually happening

I had completely forgotten they’re making a new live-action He-Man movie until these photos of Nicholas Galitzine and Camila Mendes on set surfaced over the weekend. The film is currently shooting in London, and you can see Galitzine sporting himbo hair and Mendes in costume as Teela, He-Man’s right-hand woman. I feel like this movie is an entire decade too late.

Once upon a time, this film, formally titled Masters of the Universe, was going to star Noah Centineo, but he dropped out circa 2021. The role then passed to Kyle Allen, who was supposed to star in a version for Netflix, but they ultimately cancelled the project and the role went to Galitzine and the rights to Amazon MGM. And that’s just the last six-ish years of development, it has been a truly torturous road to get a new version of He-Man to the big screen (almost like it might be a bad idea!). 

But now He-Man is actually happening, and production is underway with billionaire nepo baby Travis Knight directing. Seriously, though, Knight is a good director, having previously helmed Kubo and the Two Strings—he is an executive at stop-motion production company Laika, granted, his daddy did it fund it for him—and Transformers’ spin-off Bumblebee. Knight feels like a good fit for something as silly as He-Man, Bumblebee proved he can take dumbsh-t 80s lore and turn it into something sincere and sweet while still honoring the goofy roots of it all. See Bumblebee if you haven’t, it’s good, I promise. 

But we are very much in “this looks hella stupid on set” territory. Much like a superhero movie, there’s no way a live-action He-Man movie is going to look cool and normal on set, everyone and everything looks f-cking dumb, we just have to hope it all works out in post. The good news is the casting for Masters of the Universe is pretty solid. Besides Galitzine and Mendes, the film stars Alison Brie, Idris Elba, Morena Baccarin, Sasheer Zamata, and…Jared Leto. Because he’s in everything now, apparently.

Despite a decent cast and director, though, I am not at all convinced a new He-Man movie will float in 2026, when this one is due in theaters. In general, it feels like audiences are jonesing for something new, and not more of the Big IP era that dominated the 2000s and 2010s. But maybe Team He-Man will pull something like Barbie out of their asses, where the filmmakers take what should be a stupid IP cash grab and turn it into something interesting. Only time will tell.