Masters of the Universe 2026 movie review

Before going into the review we need to appreciate how long we’re waited for a follow up to the 1987 Dolph Lundgren movie. We’ve had a few near attempts since then.

One was the direct sequel which would have brought Dolph back but was cancelled in early production due to costs, the sets and costumes made were later repurposed for the Cyborg movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Another attempt was in the early 2000s by Netflix, it got as far as casting but later got cancelled pre production.

Fast forward a few years alter and Amazon managed to get the movie signed off, brought together an amazing cast and got it into cinemas before we could blink.

The movie starts off with Adam aka He-man living a fairly boring life on Earth, light years away from Eternia and questioning his own existence. He has all these memories of his home a need to find his lost sword and a load of friend but nobody believes him.

I think the start is a great into to ground the movie, maybe being focused always on Eternia like the cartoon it wouldn’t have offered anything new. I really like the approach they took as it added to the original mythos and complimented what we had. It could easily be considered a prequel to the original cartoon the way the story is presented.

The movie is credited to have been written by Chris Butler, Aaron Nee and Adam Nee. Although I can’t think of any of their work I’ve seen recently I assume as all fans of the original show and master craftsmen as this story would only be possible by people who known the mythology inside and out. We’ve had so many movies based on comics and games made in the past that feel so disjointed from the source material, this isn’t one of them.

The director of the movie was Travis Knight who directed the Transformers Bumblebee movie which was by far the best of the Transformers movies and I’m not sure why they decided to bring Michael Bay back instead of letting Travis take over. I really think Travis is the key to bringing this story together, it just flowed like it was part of the source material like the Bumblebee movie instead of feeling like it was made just to sell toys.

Now the casting was something I wasn’t expecting, none of the actors are people I’d have originally thought of when considering each character but after watching the movie I can’t think see anyone else playing them.

Nicholas Galitzine plays Adam who works in HR while on a quest to find is missing sword which will help him return to Eternia. Brilliant casting here. I think playing He-man would have been a challenge for any actor and he made it seem really natural. He managed to bring all the sides of He-man together from the comedy to the barbarian brute he could be. In the movie he’s fragile, needy a leader and a friend. So many characters to play for one actor.

Now Teela was always going to be a tough one to cast too, she’s a warrior in the kings guard, we had Teela way before Xena and Buffy hit TV. Buffy’s Sarah Michelle Gellar even voices Teela in the Kevin Smith cartoon of He-man. In the movie she’s played by Camila Mendes who’s probably best known for her part as Veronica Lodge in Riverdale which ran for 7 seasons, I think she’s a very underrated actress and I hope this movie brings her to more big screen movies.

The movie also stars Idris Elba as Mat-At-arms/Duncan and Jared Leto as Skeletor. Leto hasn’t had a lot of luck with big roles in recent years with movies like Morbius and his short stint as the Joker which could have gone further. Leto was very noticeably absent of promotion for the movie which is a shame because he was actually really good as Skeletor, again he’s a a character that’s hard to bring to life, he’s got a skull for a face commands an army of monsters but still has to bring the comedy to the movie.

Overall it’s a trip down memory lane, I can’t think of many character from the original show that it missed out, there were a few but out of 130 or so episodes they did great to include so many.

The only down side to the movie I can think of is that it felt a bit short, I’d for them to release a longer directors cut of the movie. So much happens between Adam being sent to Earth and returning to his homeland.

Overall I think this movie was amazing and very well put together, I really hope they manage to bring everyone back for a sequel.

Posted by Adi Mursec on June 25, 2026