Cora’s Thoughts on the Actual Masters of the Universe Trailer

Yesterday, I shared my thoughts on the teaser trailer for the actual trailer for the upcoming Masters of the Universe live action film.

Now, you can read my thoughts on the actual trailer, which was released today. But first, let’s have a look at the full trailer below:

Okay, have you all watched it? Then here are my thoughts:

The trailer opens with a sweeping view of Eternia and Zoar flying over the land. There’s a cut and we see Zoar flying towards Eternos. Then there’s another cut and the camera zooms up towards Castle Grayskull and the open jawbridge. It’s notable that the bridge leading towards Castle Grayskull is partly damaged. Castle Grayskull looks like a mash-up of several influences. The four towers flanking the skull are higher and more pronounced than normal and reminiscent of how Castle Grayskull was depicted in some of the vintage mini-comics.

Another cut and we get a lovely panorama of Eternos and Castle Grayskull with a ship, most likely the Talon Fighter, in the foreground. Eternos is located on top of a mesa as in the Filmation cartoon and has lots of towers, spires and domes. Castle Grayskull is situated just outside the city on the other side of a waterfall, connected to the city by a bridge. We also see the strange structure that we already saw in the teaser which looks a lot like the monorail of the Eternia playset. Which would be incredibly cool.

Over these establishing shots, we get a voiceover by what we eventually learn is Prince Adam. He says that all the things that normally only exist in fairytales and bedtime stories – talking tigers, spaceships and magic swords that can make a man as mighty as a god – all those things are real where he comes from.

When Adam talks about magic swords, we get a shot of the Power Sword in a kind of holding frame inside Castle Grayskull. And yes, the Power Swords looks absolutely perfect. Also note that Adam specifically mentioned talking tigers, so Cringer definitely talks in the movie, though he doesn’t say anything in the trailer.

There is another shot of Zoar flying outside what appears to be Eternos Palace. The palace gates are flanked by what looks like lion statues. There is a walkway leading towards the palace, which is lined by statues of hooded figures. At the other end of that walkway, there is a kind of platform surrounded by giant statues of what appear to be previous Eternian kings and heroes. None of them look like King Grayskull or He-Ro or King Miro, all of whom we might expect to see here. Even though it’s been rumoured that King Grayskull does appear in the movie. Nor do they look like the Council of Elders whose statues we saw in the palace garden in the 200X cartoon. Nonetheless, the whole thing looks good, even though it is reminiscent of Asgard in the Marvel movies and of the various Middle Earth settings in Lord of the Rings. But then, fantasy cities are expected to look a certain way and it was pretty clear that Eternos wouldn’t be as bright pink as in the Filmation cartoon. Besides, the giant statues of past kings and heroes go back all the way to the 1987 movie.

There is a brief shot of little Adam on the bridge, gazing out into the distance and looking incredibly adorable, followed by a cut to grown-up Adam, sitting in his bedroom on Earth and smiling at a piece of paper he is holding in his hands. The walls of the bedroom are covered in drawings of the Power Sword and Eternia that Adam made – and I love that he’s still artistic in this version of the story, because Adam would probably have ended up as an artist or poet, if he hadn’t been born Prince of Eternia. Adam also has a telescope, a globe and his computer screen shows a starfield. Of course, Adam not only comes from another planet, his Mom is also an astronaut. Finally, we also see some action figures on his desk, for of course Adam would have action figures.

Then we get the MGM lion and I’m sad to report that it’s the usual MGM lion and not Cringer or Panthor or Battle Lion. That’s honestly something they should have done. I doubt Leo, who has been the official MGM lion since 1957, would mind, if he’s even still alive.

There are more scenes of Eternos, this time by night and obviously under attacks. There are torches, flying vehicles shooting lasers and a door exploding. Adam’s voice-over asks “Why did you send me away?”

We get another shot of little Adam gazing up at his Mom. Queen Marlena, played by Charlotte Riley, has her familiar green gown, a necklace with a green pendant and wears a coronet. However, her hair is not pulled back as usual, but flowing free. Her hair is also blonder than Marlena’s is usually depicted, but it’s still very obviously her.

Marlena replies, “I wanted you to be safe. So I sent you to a place I knew they’d never find you. Earth.”

We get a shot of Duncan in his Royal Guard armour drawing a sword with the Royal Guard behind him. One of the guardsmen might be Fisto – at any rate he has a red beard, though he is in regular guard armour.

There is another explosion and we see an aerial shot of Marlena and little Adam running across the bridge with the statues. We also see that the floor of the platform with the statues has a giant map of Eternia. This floor with map could be seen in some drone footage someone took of the studio backlot several months ago. Marlena and Adam run into Castle Grayskull and we briefly see the Sorceress standing next to the gate.

Then there is a hard cut from Eternia with its warm golden tones to Earth with cold steel and glass office buildings. Another cut and we see Adam at a desk in an office, living the nightmare. He has a nametag that says Adam Glenn, so he’s using his Mom’s surname. And just in case you were wondering, Adam’s pronouns are he/him, which I’m sure will send the usual suspects into spasms of fury, while yelling “woke”.

There’s a brief clip of Adam in his pink shirt sitting opposite a black woman in business wear who informs him that his obsession with “nerd things and sword stuff” is not a good look for human resources. This appears to be Sasheer Zamata who has been announced to be playing a character named Suzie. Her casting upset the usual suspects several months ago, because they had issues with an earthly character named Suzie played by a black woman.

Now I haven’t looked in the more terrible corners of the internet (though JDA predictably hates the pronouns, for of course he does), but so far the only negative responses to Adam’s pronouns and the black human resources lady have been oddly enough from left-leaning folks, who were upset that the bad place Adam wants to escape has pronouns on nametags and bossy black women who dislike nerdy stuff and swords, which they view as a rebuke to modern progressive values and particularly to Masters of the Universe Revelation/Revolution.

Personally, I think they’re reading too much into this. I viewed the office scenes as just shorthand for the modern day corporate workplace. And maybe it’s just me, but a corporate office job would hell for me, which is why I have never had one and did everything to avoid taking such a such a job. As for the pronouns, they could just be a reference to He-Man. I mean, the nametag basically shows off his secret identity or rather his pronouns literally are his name.

ETA: Wesley Stenzel at Entertainment Weekly actually fell for Jon Del Arroz’s clickbait tweet about how He-Man having pronouns means that the movie is now “woke” and “DEI” and decided to write an article about it. As if He-Man hasn’t been what is considered woke these days since at least the Filmation cartoon.

As for the human resources lady, maybe Sasheer Zamata was simply the best person who auditioned for the role. Or maybe they deliberately cast a black actress for the role, because all the other women in the film – Teela, the Sorceress, Evil-Lyn and Queen Marlena – are all either white or latinas. As for the human resources lady telling Adam that his nerdy interests and sword obsession are not a good look – I certainly sympathise that co-workers and superiors might be a tad bothered by someone who is obsessed with swords. After all, you don’t want someone bringing a live sword to work and start chopping up co-workers. And I think most of us have been criticised for our nerdy interest by co-workers, teachers, family members, etc… at some point. The German Masters of the Universe fancast Das He-Manische Quartett also pointed out that the human resources lady might be a reference to the killjoys of the 1980s who hated He-Man, Masters of the Universe and action figures and cartoons in general and viewed them as satanic, glorifying violence, 25-minute toy commercials.

Adam’s obsession with sword and nerd stuff may not look good to human resources, but Adam clearly isn’t going to give up, because we see that he is looking for the Power Sword, posting a sketch of the sword online and asking if someone has seen it. And then he gets a message that someone has.

Next we see Adam going into a collectibles shop and then there is the shot from the teaser where Adam has that deer in the headlights look, while there are statues and action figures on a shelf behind him. As for why Adam had that deer in the headlights look, the Power Sword is in that shop, in the hands of a life-size muscular statue.

We later see that the statue is Vikor, a character based on an early sketch by Mark Taylor which was long believed to have been an early He-Man concept, though it’s more likely that it was intended for a never produced Conan toyline. This concept character was released in the Masters of the Universe Classics line and given the name Vikor. He also appeared in Masters of the Universe Revelation as one of the heroes hanging out in Preternia. And yes, I have the Classics Vikor:

Conan? No, Vikor, coming soon to a movie theatre near you.

Vikor is a fun Easter egg for hardcore fans without alienating casual viewers. It’s also interesting that there apparently was a Masters of the Universe like toyline in this universe, except that the character now known as Vikor got to be the star.

Though the collectibles shop has more Easter eggs for fans, because we also see several vintage Big Jim dolls and accessory sets in the background. Mattel’s Big Jim toyline from the 1970s and 1980s provided many ideas and accessories, most notably Battle Cat/Panthor and Zoar/Screech, for Masters of the Universe. In the background, there’s also a sign for Torak, a prehistoric hero created by Mark Taylor who is considered a predecessor of He-Man.

Though Adam only has eyes for the Power Sword. He touches the blade and then tries to pull it out of the statue, but he doesn’t have the Power of Grayskull yet and so he can’t get it out. And yes, the Excalibur/Sword in the Stone vibes are obvious. A shop employee – a young woman with blue hair and a nose ring (cue outrage from the usual suspects) – tells Adam that he can’t do this. “Don’t worry”, Adam says, “The sword’s mine.” In the voice-over, Adam also says that it may sound crazy, but this sword can show him the way home. We don’t see the direct aftermath of this scene, but considering we saw footage of a scene being shot where Adam was arrested by two cops, I suspect the store employee calls the police on him.

The trailer, meanwhile, cuts to a CGI flight through the jawbridge into Castle Grayskull, similar to what we saw in Masters of the Universe Revelation/Revolution. We get another glimpse of the Sorceress, who seems to be wearing a cape rather than actual wings in human form. The words “This Summer discover your true power” are emblazoned over the Castle Grayskull CGI flight.

Then we get a scene of Adam and Teela in the cockpit of a spaceship. “Hang on. It’s about to get weird”, Teela says and pulls a lever. Adam and Teela share a laugh and a look, while the spaceship vanishes from Earth through some kind of portal. The shared laughter and look is a sweet moment. After all, Adam and Teela were childhood friends – and we know that a child actress has been cast as little Teela in the film – and are now finally reunited. And yes, I hope we get a kiss between these two or at least some sizzling chemistry.

Now we get the scene we saw in the teaser yesterday where a ship which doesn’t look like any particular Masters of the Universe toy, but more like a Star Wars drop ship, lands between two of the giant statue and the ramp opens to reveal Adam, Teela, Duncan, Cringer and Roboto, looking cool and determined and heroic.

I have recreated the shot with my action figures. It’s not a perfect match, but pretty close.

“Father, since Adam just asked us about our pronouns, I have decided that mine are she/her.” – “That’s nice, Roboto. But can we maybe kill Skeletor first and talk about this later?”

Next we get a shot of Adam, Cringer and Teela on the bridge, walking towards Castle Grayskull. The bridge and the Castle look damaged and partly overgrown by red vines that look like blood. The camera swings around again and we get a shot of Adam looking determined and a little bruised in the face – most likely because he didn’t get to escape Earth without a fight, and not with the human resources lady – with Teela, Cringer, Duncan and Roboto standing behind him.

Then we get the Frank R. Paul style flying wheel, which may or may not be this movie’s interpretation of the Roton, flying over a lake towards some kind of distant city or fortress. I saw some folks noting that flying wheels look like craft seen in the Star Wars prequels. Yeah, they do, but that’s because both the Star Wars prequels and Masters of the Universe and umpteen other things borrowed Frank R. Paul’s wheel craft. The wheel makes some impressive manoeuvres and there is a cut to the scene we saw in the teaser yesterday of Duncan in civilian garb firing a very big blaster and whooping. Next we get the scene of the wheel craft and the Fright Fighter having an aerial dog fight in front of Castle Grayskull, which is certainly interesting, because traditionally, both the Roton and the Fright Fighter are Evil Warrior vehicles. We also see the giant statues again, though one is missing his head, and a massive explosion on the platform between the statues. There are people on the platform being shot at and in th background, you can see multiple wheel craft.

Next there is a shot of Adam, Duncan, Teela, Fisto and a group of soldiers marching through some kind of tunnel. If you look closely, you can make out Ram-Man and Mekaneck behind Teela as well as two characters I can’t identify. One looks a bit like Chief Carnivus, but that would be a really deep cut. In the background, there’s also a dinosaur skeleton, which looks a lot like the Battle Bones carrying case/vehicle from the vintage toyline.

Adam asks “What am I supposed to do?” though this moment looks like it’s a conversation between Adam and Teela aboard the spaceship. “Take the sword and protect them,” Duncan replies. He’s not wearing his helmet here and has more hair than I’ve ever seen on Idiris Elba. Most likely, these are two different scenes cut together.

While this dialogue is happening, we see a shot of the Collector landing on a platform where troops are standing at attention. The troops are wearing long coats, helmets and they have bones emblazoned on their uniforms. I guess these are the movie’s version of Skeletor’s skeleton warriors and they look very cool indeed. I really hope we get toys of these guys. If not, I’m glad I bought all of those Mythic Legions skeleton warriors, because Skeletor needs cannon fodder. And coincidentally, I just got another Mythic Legions skeleton, which has a viking helmet. Though apparently I need this guy, who visually comes closest to Skeletor’s soldiers. Besides, you can never have too many skeletons.

The ramp of the Collector opens and we get our first glimpse of Skeletor and he looks great. Skull face, hood, glowing eyes, most closely resembling the 200X Skeletor. And yes, I know a lot of people aren’t happy about Jared Leto being cast as Skeletor. I wasn’t happy about that casting choice myself. Nonetheless, what little we see of Skeletor in the trailer looks good. And I’m willing to give Leto a chance. After all, the man is not just responsible for some legendary terrible flops, but he also is an Oscar winner. And yes, he is weird and creepy and clearly a case of method acting gone too far, but maybe that’s just what Skeletor. So let’s give him a chance.

We get some shots of a massive free for all fight scene. We see Spikor, who’s one of the more underused Evil Warriors, though I always liked him. His spikes, which are normally a kind of armour magically fused to his body, look more organic here and he looks not so much purple, but more mottled. In many ways, he looks like something out of Hellraiser, but definitely very cool. Though he doesn’t look impressive for long, because Fisto knocks him out with his mighty fist. And actor Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson looks absolutely perfect for the role, like the toy come to life. I’m not sure if Fisto is Duncan’s brother or more likely half-brother in this continuity, but I’m really happy to see him.

“Eat steel knuckles, shithead! For Eternia!”

“You just hit my friend, arsehole!” – “Yes, and your boss killed my King and threw my Queen in the dungeon, so I guess we’re even.”

After Duncan tells Adam to take the sword and protect Eternia, we get a scene of Adam drawing the sword and preparing to hold it aloft. We also get a glimpse of Trap-Jaw from behind, confronting Adam and blocking his way. So is Adam about to transform in front of Trap-Jaw of all people? Or is this a bit of misdirection?

We now get a quick succession of random scenes. There’s another scene of the wheel craft and the Fright Fighters engaging in an aerial dogfight, Beast-Man on Earth jumping onto the roof of a police car, while civilians ran for their lives, Adam and his mother hugging, whereby Marlena looks notably older and also as if she spent the past however many years in a dungeon. She appears to be wearing double wedding rings, traditionally a sign of widowhood. So did Skeletor kill Randor, when he conquered Eternos? It’s also interesting that we haven’t seen anything of Randor yet, though we know that James Purefoy will play him, which is IMO a perfect bit of casting. We also get a scene of Teela and Evil-Lyn fighting, which is our only glimpse of Alison Brie as Evil-Lyn so far. Then there’s Cringer – or maybe Battle Cat – growling and showing his fangs. And finally, we get a massive “Hell yeah” moment of Duncan launching himself at the Collector, while raising his iconic mace aloft. Because Duncan is the coolest.

These disparate scenes are intercut with the words “Witness how he became He-Man.” And yes, we’re about to witness just that. Because now we finally see Adam holding the sword aloft. There is some kind of underground stalagtite chamber with crackling lightning, most likely this continuity’s version of the crystal chamber/abyss under Castle Grayskull, and even a brief glimpse of what appears to be the Orb of Power. And then we get the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Adam is standing in front of Castle Grayskull with the eye sockets and mouth glowing and exclaims “I have the power.”

Then the trailer cuts to He-Man. He is muscular, but not as heavily muscled as Dolph Lundgren was, let alone how the toy was. Some people have complained about this, but since this is a live action film, the actors are still human. And while it’s obvious that Nicholas Galitzine filled out and worked out for the role, the overblown steroid muscles of the 1980s are mostly a thing of the past. And personally, I’m glad that we’re not putting actors’ health at risk for the sake of muscles. Besides, it’s clear that he will be Adam for much, possibly even most of the movie, and I’d rather have someone with the acting chops to play Adam than someone with He-Man muscles. After all, while Dolph Lundgren looked absolutely perfect as He-Man in the 1987 movie, actingwise he is the weakest link in that movie. And I’m saying this as someone who liked the 1987 movie.

He-Man’s costume looks most closely inspired by the 200X version. The straps holding the harness are wider, quite possibly because narrow straps would tear. Instead of a loincloth, he wears a leather kilt/skirt, which again makes sense, because you don’t want He-Man accidentally flashing the audience in a movie that’s also aimed at kids. I’m not entirely convinced by the outfit, but we also don’t see a lot of it, since He-Man is busily chopping his way through Skeletor’s guards. In the background, we see the fangs of Snake Mountain, so that’s where we are.

We get the title/logo and then an aerial shot of Snake Mountain surrounded by lava with someone, most likely Skeletor, standing on the tongue of the snake. We also get another look at Skeletor. The hood, face, cape and the Havoc Staff, which has glowing eyes, look great, though Skeletor’s blue skin looks more like a body suit than actual skin. Next to Skeletor, we also get a glimpse of Hafthor Bjornsson as Goat Man, one of the more obscure Evil Warriors. He looks very much like he did in his very limited appearances, though he is wielding an axe rather than a war hammer.

The trailer ends with a few shots of He-Man and Skeletor duelling and the words “Only in theatres: June 5”.

So what are my overall thoughts on the trailer? Well, I definitely liked it and am excited to see more. Is the trailer perfect? Not quite. Some of the CGI still looks a little rough, though we’re likely not seeing the finished version yet. It’s also notably that some characters we know have been cast are absent from the trailer such as King Randor, Tri-Klops, Pig-Boy and Moss-Man. We do see Cringer, but we don’t see Battle Cat. What is more, Orko is extremely notable by his absence. Maybe Orko will be revealed in a future trailer – and note that no actor has been announced for Orko yet – or maybe poor Orko is absent from a live action Masters of the Universe movie again.

And yes, part of the movie takes place on Earth, but then we knew this already. Besides, I’ve never been as opposed to He-Man on Earth as many others. And the approach to play up Adam’s connection to Earth via his Mom is much better than the 1987 movie, which just randomly saw He-Man, Teela, Duncan and Gwildor land on Earth and never even mentioned Adam’s connection to Earth. Besides, I’m pretty sure we won’t spend too much time on Earth either, since we’ve already seen more of Eternia in this two minute trailer than in the entire 1987 movie.

Overall, the responses from Masters of the Universe fans are overwhelmingly positive. There are a few negative ninnies, but then there always are. The negative reactions I’ve seen mostly come from folks who hated the cartoon, who think He-Man is only for old people or who mainly associate Masters of the Universe with those stupid internet memes and wanted something more comedy or more meta or more gay. I also saw a few people complaining that no one cares about He-Man and that She-Ra is much better. Most of these seem to be fans of the 2018 She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, which did bring new fans into Masters of the Universe, but also had some 2018 She-Ra fans who were very negative about Revelation/Revolution well before the far right culture war crowd latched onto it. I’m not linking to anybody, because why should I link to negative ninnies? Though I love this takedown of someone who thinks She-Ra is much better and no one cares about He-Man by none other than J.Michael Straczynski, who started his career on the Filmation He-Man cartoon and co-created She-Ra.

Some people have said that the trailer looks too generic, took much like Thor Ragnarok or Guardians of the Galaxy or Star Wars. This isn’t entirely wrong, but the reason that the Masters of the Universe movie looks a lot like some of the more cosmic Marvel movies and Star Wars is because they were all drawing on the same source material. Masters of the Universe has deep roots in pulp SFF as well as in the 1970s SFF that the original creators read. Star Wars and Marvel draw on the same sources to a certain degree. Besides, Masters of the Universe is strongly inspired by Jack Kirby’s work for Marvel in the 1960s and DC in the 1970s. So of course there will be certain similarities, because the creators of Masters of the Universe were inspired by the guy who co-created Thor.

In general, I think it’s best to just ignore the negative ninnies, whether it’s the “Wah, it’s woke now” crowd or the “This is just a toy commercial for fortysomethings. Why won’t someone make movies for adults?” crowd. Also, if someone shits on this trailer, but is excited about the trailer for some random Darth Maul thing, I shall look in askance at their taste.

So am I going to watch the movie? Of course. I mean, I was obviously always going to watch it, on the big screen even. Besides, I will be at the 2026 Los Amigos Masters of the Universe convention in Heidelberg and one of the highlights is that they rented a movie theatre and will show a double feature of the 1987 and 2026 Masters of the Universe movies, so I will definitely see it with a lot of fans, which will be fun.

Though I will probably also go see it on my own beforehand, though the timing isn’t great, because the movie comes out just before Metropolcon. If there’s a midnight showing somewhere here in Bremen and surroundings, I’ll probably be going, because this is one movie that I want to experience that way.

At any rate, I’m a lot more excited for the movie than I was two days ago. And note that I didn’t even particularly want a live action Masters of the Universe film and would have been happier with season 3 of Masters of the Universe Revelation/Revolution. But this film is what we’re getting and at least it looks like it’s going to be good.

In other news, the nominations for the 2026 Oscars were announced today and Sinners has set a new nomination record with 16 nominations altogether, more than any other movie in history. This would be remarkable in itself, but what makes it even more remarkable is that Sinners is a horror film with a black director and a majority black cast. It is also a very good film and I’m happy to see it do so well. The Thomas Pynchon adaptation One Battle After Another also got a lot of nominations, but then that one seems to be this year’s awards darling. Now I am a big Thomas Pynchon, but I have to admit that Vineland, on which One Battle After Another is based, isn’t my favourite of his works.