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

A new trailer for the upcoming live action Masters of the Universe movie dropped today. This is not actually a great time for me, because I’m flying to Iridescence, the 2026 Eastercon in Birmingham, UK, very early on Thursday morning and still have tons of stuff to do.

BTW, if you are at Iridescence, drop by and say hello. You can find me at the fan table for the Brisbane in 2028 Worldcon bid.  There will also be chocolate and candy and swag to give away, including incredibly cute tiny koalas.

But for now I’m still at home, so here are my thoughts about and analysis of the new Masters of the Universe trailer:

As is customary these days, there was a trailer for the trailer a day before, featuring actors Nicholas Galitzine (Adam/He-Man) and Camila Mendes (Teela) messing about with the Power Sword prop. It’s cute and Nicholas Galitzine and Camila Mendes clearly have a lot of chemistry, which is important for one of the central relationships in Masters of the Universe. Though Camila Mendes’ brown suit reminds of Frau Niesert, my old sewing and crafting teacher in seventh grade.

The actual trailer dropped a day later. You can watch it below:

Now that everybody has watched the trailer, let’s break down what we’re seeing here:

The trailer starts off a heavy door opening. Adam, looking pretty roughed up, is dragged by two of Skeletor’s goons – I think they’re called Skele-Knights – and thrown into a cell. The cell door then slams shut. It’s not clear whether this is the dungeon of Snake Mountain or the dungeon of Castle Grayskull or the dungeon of Eternos Palace. Not that it matters much.

What does matter is that Adam isn’t alone in the dungeon. Duncan and Teela are there as well and immediately tend to the injured Adam. There’s also a bunch of other people in the dungeon. Some of them are familiar characters – we can clearly see Fisto, Ram-Man and Mekaneck as well as a young woman we’ve also spotted in the first trailer and who has since been identified as Dian, a fairly obscure character from the newspaper comic strips of the 1980s, where she’s an officer in the Royal Guard and friend of Teela’s. It’s good to see other female Eternian soldiers and it’s alway good to see Teela having some female friends, though it’s interesting that they went with the very obscure Dian rather than the better known characters Andra or Ileena who could play a similar role. Perhaps there were rights issues with using Andra or Ileena.

The other people in the dungeon seem to be random Eternian civilians, quite possibly the Eternian resistance. He-Mania.com wonders whether an older black man in the background might be Dekker, Duncan’s old mentor and predecessor as Man-at-Arms. A screenshot of Mekaneck at He-Mania.com also shows a boy of maybe twelve standing next to Mekaneck. So did the movie remember that Mekaneck had a son in the Filmation cartoon?

At any rate, the trailer starts with all the heroes captured and locked up in a dungeon. This isn’t the first time something like this happened. For example, Skeletor splits up the Masters, ambushes and captures all of them in the season 1 finale of the 200X cartoon. But it is nonetheless an interesting choice to start the trailer with what is possibly the lowest point for our heroes, the moment when all hope seems lost.

We then get a panning shot of the various imprisoned Eternians, including a good look at Fisto and Ram-Man. There’s a voice over of Adam saying, “I know most of you don’t remember me…”, while Fisto looks as if he’s about to tell Adam that of course he remembers him. “But I remember every one of you,” Adam continues, while we see brief shots of Duncan, Teela – with her hair up and apparently wearing her iconic tiara – and Cringer who’s obviously CGI, green tigers being rather hard to come by, and nonetheless looks very cuddly.

It’s most obvious in the 200X cartoon, but in many versions of the story, the other Heroic Warriors are considerably older than Adam and Teela. In fact, in the 200X cartoon, the Heroic Warriors are originally Randor’s team before they become He-Man’s. At any rate, Adam clearly knew all of these people as a kid. He also, as will become clear later, remembers his life on Eternia.

Next we get the zoom out of Castle Grayskull that we already saw in the first trailer and in Masters of the Universe Revelation and Revolution for that matter. Then, we get the MGM logo and it appears that MGM listened to the fans, because the MGM lion Leo has been replaced by Cringer. Coincidentally, they did something similar in the recent trailer for Sheep Detectives, based on Leonie Swann’s delightful mystery Glennkill, where they replaced the lion with a sheep. Nicholas Galitzine is also in Sheep Detectives BTW, where he attempts to solve the murder of Hugh Jackman’s Farmer Glenn, aided or hindered (depending on your POV) by the sheep.

The scene then shifts back to Earth, to the shot of glass and steel office buildings that we already saw in the first trailer. Next, we get the shot of a bored Adam at his desk that we already saw in the first trailer as well, though it’s framed slightly differently this time around, so we don’t see the pronouns on the name plate that had the usual suspects up in arms the last time around. Meanwhile, Adam says in the voiceover that even though he was stuck lightyears away on Earth, he never stopped trying to find his way home.

There’s also a shot of Adam in his apartment on Earth. He has a shoebox labeled “Eternia” on his lap and inside are childhood drawings of the Power Sword and of his family – King Randor and Queen Marlena, little Adam with a sword and Cringer.  We’ve seen in the first trailer that Adam keeps drawing the Power Sword and other pictures of Eternia, but now we see that he started doing this as a kid – probably as a way of keeping the memory of Eternia alive. It’s a sweet moment and you just want to give Adam a hug. I also wonder what happened to Adam after he was sent to Earth. Since Marlena is a former NASA astronaut, she probably still has family on Earth. So did Adam grow up with his grandparents or maybe an aunt or uncle? At any rate, I hope he didn’t end up in foster care. Especially since it’s clear that Adam must be deeply traumatised by what happened.

There is a cut to the Talon Fighter flying towards Eternos. Teela is in the pilot’s seat and tells Adam, “Everything changed since you left.” We then see Eternos and royal palace in ruins, while a horrified Adam exclaims, “It’s all gone.” So Skeletor not only conquered the planet, he also thoroughly trashed the place. He also apparently can’t be bothered to rebuild anything, not even to put up a giant golden statue of himself. This is actually quite consistent, since whenever Skeletor actually manages to conquer Eternia, he usually has no idea what to do with it and mainly indulges himself in abusing and torturing enemies and even his own henchpeople.

We then get a flashback to the final assault of the Evil Forces of Skeletor on Eternos Palace. We see some scenes we already saw in the first trailer. The palace gates exploding and fighting around the palace. We also get another shot of Queen Marlena and little Adam running towards the relative safety of Castle Grayskull. But this time we see little Adam turning around and anxiously crying out, “Dad!” Now we also finally get our first look of James Purefoy as Randor and he looks very much like you’d expect Randor to look. Two of Skeletor’s goons bar his way and Randor apparently draws his sword. sacrificing himself, so that Marlena and Adam can escape. Note that we also don’t see Randor in any of the present day scenes, so it’s quite possible that he was killed.

“Skeletor took my family,” Adam says in the voiceover, “And he destroyed our world”, while we see the Collector landing and Skeletor walking down the ramp. We’ve seen these shots before in the first trailer, but this time we also hear Skeletor laughing. Next, we get some footage of Rotons attacking the bridge that leads from Eternos to Castle Grayskull, which we also saw in the first trailer. We also get a great shot of Alison Brie as Evil-Lyn sauntering across the bridge to Castle Grayskull while the city burns behind her. I have to admit I was a tad skeptical about Alison Brie as Evil-Lyn, since I mainly associate her with Pete’s annoying and long suffering wife Trudy in Mad Men. Most of her other work seems to have been comedy, though she also did a few indie horror film. That said, based on this brief shot, she will make a great Evil-Lyn. Not that we’ve ever had a bad one.

The scene then switches to Adam hugging his mother in what we now know is the dungeon where they’re all being held. Once again, it’s notable that Randor is nowhere in sight.

We then see Adam and Duncan sitting next to each other, quite possibly still in the dungeon or in some underground rebel headquarters. “It’s all my fault”, Adam says and while that’s of course nonsense, because how on Eternia could a roughly ten-year-old Adam have stopped Skeletor from conquering the planet, it’s also a very Adam thing to blame himself for everything. Not to mention that Eternos was still undamaged the last time Adam saw it. Teela telling him that everything changed after he left probably didn’t help either.

“I know what it’s like to fail,” Duncan replies and once again, that’s very typical for Duncan, because we know that he tends to blame himself, when things go wrong, as seen in Masters of the Universe Revelation. And things can hardly go more wrong than Eternia being conquered, Eternos and the royal palace being trashed, the Queen getting captured and King Randor getting captured or killed on his watch. Teela is the same BTW and we often see her blaming and even punishing herself for any real or perceived failures in the Filmation cartoon, most notably in “Teela’s Trial”, where she quits her job and exiles herself to the wastelands after she accidentally teleports her father away to an unknown destination.

We then see a shot of the Power Sword in Castle Grayskull. “Take the sword”, Duncan says in the voiceover, while we get a fantastic scene of Trap-Jaw attacking Adam. We have seen Trap-Jaw as an action figure, but this is our first good look of Sam C. Wilson as Trap-Jaw in the actual movie and he looks great, though the face looks a tad off. This version of Trap-Jaw clearly leans into the body horror aspects of the character, complete with a cobbled together look. We see Trap-Jaw’s mechanical arm changing from blaster cannon to hook, as he attacks Adam and knocks him down.

The scene then shifts to a flashback of Adam as a kid getting knocked down during swordfighting training. In the background, you can see other young Eternians being trained, including a young Teela. “Cause if you fall,” Duncan says in the voiceover, “That’s your chance to stand tall.” Duncan saying this makes sense, because training the cadets of the royal guard as well as young Adam and Teela is traditionally part of his job description. I also love that movie Duncan is still the incredibly supportive mentor and father figure he’s always been. And note that this version of Adam is as much as an orphan as Teela, since he grew up without his parents on a different planet, and that Randor isn’t there and quite possibly no longer alive. So Adam absolutely needs a father figure.

Coincidentally, this flashback also explains why Adam knows how to use his sword and fight – because he had training as a child. Cause while the Power of Grayskull bestows super-strength and physical transformation upon the chosen champion, it does not give fighting skills to someone who can’t tell one end of a sword from another. The reason He-Man knows how to fight and use a sword is because Adam knows how to fight and use a sword. And yes, it’s possible, even likely, that Adam took swordfighting and martial lessons on Earth. But formal fencing and martial arts lessons aren’t actually all that useful, if you’re thrown into an actual fight.

In the flashback, we see little Adam get up again, while in the present day, adult Adam get up and draws the sword, which is strapped to his back and still wrapped in cloth. He holds it aloft and the music cuts out for a moment, while the trailer focusses on Adam’s pupils dilating. Then he says the magic words, the music returns and there is an explosion that knocks back Trap-Jaw and the other Evil Warriors. Adam is hit by lighting and literally lifted up into the air, as he transforms. It’s a fantastic transformation scene and we even get a variation of the Castle Grayskull background from the Filmation cartoon completely with the smoky “Spirit of Grayskull” from the very early mini-comics.

I’ve seen some people online compare the transformation scene to Sailor Moon, because any scene where a character transforms into their super-powered self with flashy light effects is inevitably compared to Sailor Moon. However, in this case it’s inaccurate, because the Sailor Moon manga debuted in 1991, the anime in 1992, while Adam first transformed in the Filmation cartoon in 1983 and She-Ra in 1985. The original Highlander movie, which came out in 1986, also featured massive explosions of lightning after one immortal beheaded another. So Sailor Moon took a trope which already existed and popularised it for a new audience which may not have been familiar with the earlier versions.

And yes, apparently the movie does away with the secret identity, since He-Man transforms in front of Trap-Jaw and several Evil Warriors. Of course, Adam only had the choice between transforming in front of Trap-Jaw or getting impaled on his hook. Nonetheless, I’m fine with with ditching the whole secret identity, because the whole secret identity aspect never really made a lot of sense anyway. Also note that all modern incarnations of He-Man and She-Ra as well as many other superhero movies dumped the secret identity aspect.

We next get a shot of He-Man, Duncan, Teela and Roboto walking across a wasteland towards Snake Mountain, which looks fantastic and very much like the 200X incarnation. Though the movie Snake Mountain is also surrounded by skulls on spikes, which is more bloody and violent than Masters of the Universe usually gets. I mean, Skeletor and his Evil Warriors obviously beheaded people and stuck their heads on spikes around Snake Mountain as a warning to others. That’s a far cry from Filmation or even from 200X or Revelation/Revolution.

He-Man is obviously appalled by this sight – as anybody would be. Next, there is a shot of an angry He-Man thoroughly trashing several of Skeletor’s goons inside Snake Mountain, while Tri-Klops stands around in the background, if you look closely. We then get a brief shot of Skeletor walking, while holding both the Havoc Staff and the Power Sword, so he does take it from Adam at some point, possibly before throwing Adam into the dungeon. We also get another shot of Skeletor, flanked by Goat-Man and his Skele-Knights, which we already saw in the first trailer. What’s new is that we hear Skeletor’s voice proclaiming “The Universe shall quake in my shadow.”

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I wasn’t overly happy with the casting of Jared Leto as Skeletor as was pretty much everybody else. That said, from what little we hear Skeletor say in the trailer, Leto is apparently channeling Frank Langella’s Skeletor in the 1987 live action movie rather than Alan Oppenheimer’s more comedic performance in the Filmation cartoon or the evil and unhinged Skeletor performances by Brian Dobbs in the 200X cartoon and Mark Hamill in Revelation/Revolution or Peter Pasetti’s pure malevolence in the German audio dramas (yeah, not much of a chance of any American emulating that performance, though it’s a great one). I can’t argue with Leto basing his Skeletor on Langella’s version, since it’s generally considered one of the best all-time Skeletor performances – not that we ever had a bad one. And having seen Jared Leto’s take on the Joker, I’m glad his Skeletor is somewhat more restrained. One potential issue is that he doesn’t speak very clearly. I had to watch the trailer a few times to get the “The Universe shall quake in my shadow” line.”

We get a brief shot of Rotons destroying the giant statues of the Eternian kings – Jukka Issakainen identified them all based on some leaked set photos and the Eternian script seen in trailer – surrounding the platform in the middle of the bridge between Eternos and Castle Grayskull. I couldn’t make out which statue was being destroyed, though I suspect Skeletor had an excellent to want to blow up the statue of King Miro.

We get a quick shot of Zoar flying towards Eternos – still no official look at Morena Baccarin as the Sorceress, though her movie look was revealed on an Uno card of all things. The scene shifts back to Adam/He-Man who says, “This is my home. I’m gonna fight for it”, while we get a quick succession of shots of Duncan and Roboto looking up at something, He-Man on a Sky Sled being chased by Rotos through a forest with reddish foliage and Duncan saying “Somebody wants a brawl” and activating his mace.

“But I can’t do it without you”, Adam says and we see that he’s back in the dungeon, flanked by Duncan and Teela, “I need every man…” – Cue shot of Duncan walking heroically – “..woman…” – cue shot of Teela walking heroically. Adam pauses, “…and whatever that is”, while the camera shifts to a reptilian Eternian.

It’s a good question, for while Eternia has plenty of non-human races, including several reptilian ones, we actually have no idea who the reptilian character is. Theories I’ve seen range from Mer-Man and Clawful (unlikely, since they’re both Evil Warriors and neither is reptilian) to one of the Snake People, possibly Tung Lashor or Rattlor. The Eternian Snake People are traditionally villains, though we have also seen them fight on the side of good, e.g. in the 2012 DC Comics run. However, the most likely suspect is Lizard Man a.k.a. Lizzy, a fairly obscure Heroic Warrior who was based on an unproduced toy concept and appeared in a handful of Filmation episodes. Considering the movie dug up the even more obscure Goat-Man and Dian, Lizard Man would make sense. And it is nice to see non-humans fighting on the heroic side as well.

ETA: The reptilian Eternian has since been identified as a new character called Komodo, played by British fitness instructor and stunt performer Alex Davison.

Everybody cheers at Adam’s pep talk – and Adam once again proves that he is a good leader and will make a great king one day. During the dungeon scenes, an elderly woman is seen a few times who does not join in the cheering. It could be a random elderly Eternian woman, but I’ve also seen the theory that this is Evil-Lyn in her old woman disguise, spying on the heroes.

We get a repeat of the shot of the heroes walking heroically that we also saw in the first trailer and then we get a fantastic scene of Cringer/Battle Cat chasing and pouncing on a Skele-Knight, while both Adam and Teela ride on his back. The fact that Cringer is mauling one of Skeletor’s soldiers would suggest that he is Battle Cat here, though he doesn’t have the helmet or saddle – Adam and Teela are riding bareback. Of course, it’s possible that Cringer doesn’t actually transform in the movie – he is pretty big, after all, and he is a tiger. And while Cringer doesn’t like to fight, we have seen him fighting before. But whether he’s Cringer or Battle Cat, it’s great to see him cut loose and it’s also great to see Adam and Teela both riding on his back, since He-Man and Teela riding on Battle Cat has a long tradition going back to the very early and ridiculously Freudian mini-comic “King of Castle Grayskull”.  And yes, Cringer letting both Adam and Teela ride him makes sense, because Teela has always been almost as close to Cringer as Adam, since they all grew up together. And with Adam away on Earth, Teela is likely the one who adopted Cringer or vice versa. At any rate, they’re family.

We get a repeat of the scene of Duncan launching himself at the collector that we already saw in the first trailer and it’s still fantastic, because Duncan is a badarse. And just to prove it, in the next shot we see a grinning Teela exeuting some fancy flying manoeuvers with the Talon Fighter, while Duncan in civilian garb fires a very big blaster and yells “Yee-haw”. Once again, we’ve seen a variation of this in the first trailer and it doesn’t get old.

I’ve seen some naysayers wondering why Idris Elba would lower his standards so much to be in a movie based on – sniff – a toyline and that he’s only doing it for a paycheck. I mean, he obviously wants to get paid, because acting is his job. But it’s quite possible that he is a fan of the toys and the Filmation cartoon, since he is the right age. Plus, he’s clearly having so much fun and he’ll make a wonderful Duncan. And for those who complain that he has a different skin colour than how Duncan has traditionally been presented, honestly, what does it matter, if he gets the character? And from what little we’ve seen, he clearly does.

We then get a scene of He-Man standing in the mouth of Snake Mountain, about to face off against Skeletor. “You may have the power,” Skeletor says, while he grabs Adam by the hair, presses him to the ground and burns him, “But you’re too scared to use it.” “Trust me, I know exactly how to use it,” a clearly pissed off He-Man replies and then we get some shots of the He-Man versus Skeletor fight that we already saw in the first trailer.

It’s a great moment, though it seems to be spliced together from different parts of the movie, since He-Man is still Adam, when Skeletor tortures him. That said, Skeletor getting off on torturing He-Man is very on par for the character – also see the incredibly inappropriately erotic whipping scene from the 1987 movie.

We then get the logo and an abrupt shift to Adam’s apartment on Earth, where he’s sitting on the sofa with his gay best friend/roommate (you can tell he’s gay, because he has a man bun, wears earrings and a leopard print jacket). “You tell everyone you’re from another planet,” gay pal says, “It just makes you sound a little very crazy.” Adam just gives him a dirty look.

This humorous Earth interlude with Adam and his stereotypically gay pal is probably the weakest part of the trailer. Thankfully, it is interspersed with one of the strongest, namely He-Man on a Sky Sled, being chased by Rotons through an Eternian forest. At one point, He-Man grabs a Roton by its spinning blades and just hurls it away, until it explodes between some trees. This moment is amazing and also pure He-Man, because He-Man grabbing random objects and throwing them happened all the time in the Filmation cartoon.

All in all, this is a great trailer and makes me even more excited to watch the film. The reactions and response were also overwhelmingly positive, at least those by longtime fans. See these videos by Dad-at-Arms, Pixel Dan, Jay Glatfelter of Geek Dad Live, former Filmation writer Robert Lamb, Mega Jay Retro, Die Wilden Hörer and Das He-Manische Quartett. For a not-so-positive reaction, see the German channel Das Filmkästchen. I do feel a bit bad about singling him out, since he does like some parts of the trailer, but overall he seems to prefer a darker and less humorous take on Masters of the Universe. Though personally, I would consider a movie that features a Snake Mountain surrounded by skulls on spikes quite dark by Masters of the Universe standards.

The host of Das Filmkästchen also feels that Nicholas Galitzine looks too young and that he isn’t muscular enough. This is a complaint I’ve heard a few times, inevitably from men, since muscles seem to be a lot more important to men than to women. Not that I mind looking at a muscular body at all, but I’d rather have someone who can act than some bodybuilder or wrestler who can barely remember his lines. Which is basically what we had back in 1987, cause Dolph Lundgren looked physically as much as it’s possible for a human being to look like He-Man, but unfortunately his acting skills and even his English skills were severely lacking at the time. Of course, there are folks who are extremely muscular and can act, but they’re not that common and most of the ones I can think of are either too old or wouldn’t fit physically.

As for Nicholas Galitzine looking too young, Adam/He-Man is young. In most continuities, he first becomes He-Man when he’s between sixteen and eighteen and he’s usually around 25 – 27 or 28 at most – when he succeeds his father and becomes king. Nicholas Galitzine is thirty, though he looks younger, so he is pretty much perfect for the role. If you want an older, more seasoned warrior, there are Randor and Duncan (both played by very handsome actors) or maybe Fisto, who is definitely muscular in the movie, as he should be.

Quite a few male fans would have loved to see Alan Ritchson cast as He-Man, but while I like him as Jack Reacher, Jack Reacher is a very different character than He-Man, let alone Prince Adam. And while Alan Ritchson might have impressive muscles, I really can’t imagine as him He-Man and certainly not as Adam. Besides, let’s be serious, folks, it’s not as if Nicholas Galitzine doesn’t have muscles. If you look at older photos of him, he’s filled out impressively since he started training for the role. He just generally seems to have a slighter frame than e.g. Alan Ritchson and that’s okay.

Personally I think Nicholas Galitzine was a brilliant casting decision. I wasn’t familiar with him before he was cast, but he looks the part and based on the trailer, he’ll make a great Adam and he’ll also be a fine He-Man, even if he’s not quite as muscular as Dolph Lundgren back in the day or Alan Ritchson. Nicholas Galitzine also manages to capture Adam’s insecurity, vulnerability and his goofiness as well as his incredibly bravery, his determination and his anger at seeing what happened to his home and his family. What is more, Nicholas Galitzine has a big fanbase of mostly young women based on the romantic comedies he’s been in. These young women are now excited for a Masters of the Universe film. Honestly, I’ve seen lots of social media posts by young women who weren’t even born when the 200X cartoon was on the air geeking out about Nicholas Galitzine in a leather kilt and trust me, they think his muscles are just fine. And to be honest, every single person who complained about Nicholas Galitzine’s muscles supposedly being too small was a dude. Women honestly don’t care that much about muscles. Nicholas Galitzine will be a fine Adam/He-Man, even if he doesn’t fulfil your personal gym bro fantasies. And if you think He-Man is just enormous muscles and a gym bro fantasy become flesh, then you don’t really understand He-Man.

ETA: Entertainment Weekly has a very good behind the scenes look at the Masters of the Universe movie, including interviews with director Travis Knight, Nicholas Galitzine, Camila Mendes and Idris Elba and some of the producers, which among other things also goes into the fact that Adam/He-Man is very much not a gym bro fantasy and that acting chops and the ability to play Adam is as important, if not more so, than the muscles. There’s also a bit about Teela, her relationship to her father and her desire to always be the best as well as her unwavering faith in Adam and a bit about Duncan and that he does not deal well with Eternos getting conquered by Skeletor on his watch.

I’ve also seen some negative responses from people who hate the very idea of a He-Man movie, let alone one that takes the source material seriously, because they didn’t like the toys or the cartoon back in the day or think Masters of the Universe is for old people or only know He-Man and Skeletor via those stupid memes. It’s fine if the movie isn’t for them – though note that I was thrilled when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with Mutant Mayhem and Transformers with Transformers One got stellar movies that got the characters, even though I never cared about Transformers all that much as a kid and had grown out of cartoons by the time Teenager Mutant Ninja Turtles came along and never understood their enduring popularity, since they’re a very late 1980s/early 1990s phenomenon for me. Honestly, I don’t get the desire to shit on something just because it’s not for you. Hell, I’m not even shitting on that Super Mario Galaxy Movie and I have zero idea why anybody would bother watching that.

So far, we haven’t heard anything from the usual basket of deplorables, since they still seem to be too busy gloating about the cancellation of Starfleet Academy and defending the honour of Andy Weir to bother about Masters of the Universe. Which is a good thing.

In other news, a new trailer for the Supergirl movie dropped as well and it looks good, too. But then I loved the Supergirl – Woman of Tomorrow comic it’s based on. Kara and Adam also have a lot in common, because both lost their home and family, when they were very young – Kara more permanently – both are somewhat lost and adrift and their best friend is their beloved pet, Krypto for Kara and Cringer for Adam. What is more, Melissa Benoist who played Kara in the Supergirl TV show voiced Teela in Masters of the Universe Revolution, while her real life husband Chris Wood played Mon El in Supergirl and voiced Adam/He-Man in Masters of the Universe Revelation/Revolution.

A few days before the trailer dropped, there was also a ton of movie toys and merchandise revealed, including such highlights as a He-Man Ken and Teela Barbie, which predictably sent a certain type of male fan into spasms of fury, a Fisto and Ram-Man two-pack from the Chronicles line (So does that mean that Fisto and Ram-Man are a canon couple now? At any rate, I will absolutely get that set), some movie figures in the Origins line, an Origins Fright Fighter vehicle, a four-pack in the kids line, Funko Pops, an Uno set and Castle Gryskull and Snake Mountain faux LEGO sets.  The non-toys merchandise includes stuff like t-shirts, mugs, key chains, prop replicas, life-size He-Man and Skeletor statues as well as a life-size Bone Throne (these are tempting, though likely expensive) and also oddities like protain bars and even kitty treats.

Mattel is clearly going all out with the merchandise, though it’s a bit weird that there are several toylines running in parallel. Having a collector focussed 6/7 inch toyline and a more child friendly 5.5 inch toyline does make sense, though I wonder why they launched a separate kids’ toyline, when they could have just put the movie figures as a subline into Origins? What is more, not every character is in every line. So far, you can only get movie Spikor in Origins,  Ram-Man, Fisto and Evil-Lyn in Chronicles and Goat-Man, Mekaneck and Beast-Man only in the kids line. This sucks, if you want all the characters in the same style and scale.

As for the Chronicles collector toyline, it will also included non-movie figures – much like Masterverse, the line it’s replacing, did – and they just kicked off the line with an amazing Scare Glow action figure, complete with gorgeous Simon Eckert artwork on the packaging. Pixel Dan reviews the figure here.

There will also be a Chronicles version of King Grayskull, heroic ancestor of Adam and Adora (and Keldor/Skeletor), available on Mattel Creations next week. You can see more photos of the figure here. This version of King Grayskull is based on his appearance in the 200X cartoon, where he was white and blonde and rides Battle Lion, and not on his appearance in the Revelation/Revolution cartoon and associated media, where he was black, had dreadlocks, ride Bionotops and was voiced by Dennis Haysbert. The Revelation/Revolution King Grayskull already appeared in Masterverse and Origins, whereas the 200X King Grayskull hasn’t had a figure since the Classics line more than ten years ago, so he’s due another. And for all the people who were really, really upset about King Grayskull being white in the single episode of the 200X cartoon where he appeared and black in Revelation/Revolution, the best explanation is that these are clearly two different people, King Grayskull I and King Grayskull II. That would also explain away all the other inconsistencies regarding King Grayskull such as his death (either fallen in battle with the Evil Horde or murdered by Saryn during a Gar uprising), whether He-Ro is his son or his best friend, whether he is married to Veena or Osirah and whether his mount is Battle Lion or Bionotops.

So in short, it’s a great time to be a Masters of the Universe fan.

I will be offline for a few days, since I’m off to Birmingham for Eastercon very early tomorrow morning, but you can find me on social media and in person at the con.