Masters of the Universe

Published on August 3rd, 2026

Whatever your opinion of 2026’s Masters of the Universe, we can probably all agree on one thing: it arrives too late. The only real debate is how late. Some will argue it’s 40 years overdue—the film the 1987 Dolph Lundgren-led Cannon production should have been. Ironically, even that movie arrived after the peak of the franchise, with toy sales already in decline and Masters of the Universe being pushed aside by the unstoppable rise of Transformers. Others will say it’s only 20 years too late, arguing this should have hit cinemas in the late 2000s or early 2010s, when the children who grew up with He-Man in the ’80s had kids of their own—the perfect age to discover Eternia for themselves. Whichever camp you fall into, one thing is clear: this movie missed its ideal moment.

After years of living on Earth as an ordinary human, Adam is reunited with the Power Sword and returns to Eternia, where the evil Skeletor has seized control of the kingdom. Embracing his destiny as He-Man, Adam joins forces with Teela, Man-At-Arms, and a band of unlikely allies to reclaim Castle Grayskull and free Eternia from Skeletor’s tyrannical rule before all hope is lost.

I grew up with He-Man and the Masters of the Universe in the early ’80s. I had the toys, a stack of comics, and even convinced my dad to carve me a Power Sword out of wood. An eight-year-old running around with a solid wooden sword, and nobody batted an eye. It really was a different time. For a while, He-Man was my entire world.

By the time the Dolph Lundgren movie arrived in 1987, though, my interests had already shifted. Even so, I was disappointed that the film featured so few familiar faces from the cartoon and toy line, instead introducing a host of new characters that were clearly cheaper to realize on a Cannon Films budget. As a kid, it felt like a betrayal of the world I loved, and it left a bad taste in my mouth.

When you think about the ’80s movies based on pop culture phenomena, it really was a rough time. We had to watch Optimus Prime die in Transformers: The Movie, endure the glorified toy commercial that was the G.I. Joe TV movie, sit through the disastrous The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, and see Dolph Lundgren’s He-Man spend most of his time on Earth in Masters of the Universe. Kids today have no idea how good they have it.

Because I’m genuinely jealous. This is the movie I wanted back in 1987—or, better yet, in 1985 while He-Man was still at the height of his popularity. This is a He-Man movie that embraces the source material instead of apologizing for it. It has fun with its more outlandish elements, but it never is embarrassed by them. Thanks to modern visual effects, characters like Trap Jaw finally look believable—or at least as believable as a cyborg with a mechanical jaw can. The same goes for Eternia itself and the many bizarre vehicles that inhabit it. We’ve come a long way from a static cut-out of Dolph Lundgren composited onto a jet-ski-like hovercraft cruising through the streets of Small Town, USA.

Instead, we get Beast Man tearing through city streets in pursuit of the Power Sword Adam has only just reclaimed, casually swatting cars aside as if they’re Matchbox toys. And that’s just the opening act.

While I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, it’s far from perfect. For starters, it’s at least 20 minutes longer than it needs to be. The story is fairly generic, and some of the running gags wear out their welcome—particularly the endless sexual innuendos surrounding Fisto. Masters of the Universe isn’t breaking any new ground, but that’s perfectly fine. Nobody was expecting a revolutionary piece of cinema. What fans wanted was a big-budget, effects-driven adaptation that stayed true to the characters and visual style of the cartoon and toy line. It took Hollywood long enough, but that has finally become the norm rather than the exception.

Another disappointment is the surprisingly limited roster of familiar faces. I’m sure some characters were deliberately held back for a sequel that will probably never happen, but both the heroic and villainous sides feature only a fraction of the cast from the original cartoon and toy line. In fact, there were several characters I didn’t recognize at all, leaving me wondering whether they were created specifically for this film, much like Gwildor and Blade were for the 1987 movie.

Speaking of the 1987 movie, it’s only fitting that original He-Man Dolph Lundgren makes a cameo. He earned it. In fact, I’m still waiting for Lundgren to pop up in a Punisher movie or TV series. After all, he was the original Punisher long before Marvel movies became the cinematic juggernaut they are today.

What this film gets right is that it fully embraces its ’80s roots while firmly planting the story in the present. Adam is now an HR manager, complete with a name badge displaying his pronouns. That brief shot in the trailer had some corners of the internet convinced the movie was going to be unbearably “woke”. In reality, aside from some race-swapped characters and Teela being portrayed as more of a girl boss, there’s very little here to support those fears. If anything, the film occasionally pokes fun at modern corporate culture, particularly whenever Adam’s boss is on screen.

Here’s something I never thought I’d say: the best thing about this movie is Jared Leto. His Skeletor is an absolute delight—a gloriously camp performance that hits every line delivery and every theatrical flourish just right. I loved every second he was on screen. Leto also leans into the homoerotic undertones that have long surrounded the original cartoon and He-Man’s status as a gay icon, acknowledging both on several occasions. The result is some of the movie’s biggest laughs, without ever feeling mean-spirited.

For me, Masters of the Universe is exactly what it needed to be. It’s not a masterpiece, nor is it the kind of film that will redefine the fantasy genre. What it does do is finally give He-Man the big-screen adventure he always deserved. It embraces the characters, the world, and even the inherent silliness of the franchise instead of trying to distance itself from it. Forty years ago, technology, budgets, and perhaps even Hollywood itself weren’t ready to do Eternia justice. Today, they finally are.

Could it have been shorter? Absolutely. Could it have featured more classic characters? Without a doubt. But none of that stopped me from grinning like the eight-year-old who once ran around the neighbourhood swinging a homemade wooden Power Sword. It may have arrived decades later than it should have, but sometimes it’s better late than never. By the power of Grayskull, they finally got it right.