Masters of the Universe | Official Trailer

[Aldarc]

I am curious who this is aimed at. As an 80s kid (born 1975) I have many fond memories of MotU. This trailer does not look much like that, and certainly doesn't feel aimed at GenX (which is totally fair, don't get me wrong). But does GenZ know or care about He-Man? Is their He-Man an Earth Boy?

Millennial here (born 1985) who grew up watching reruns of He-Man and playing with the toys as a child. There have been a handful of He-Man shows since the OG Filmation He-Man - New Adventures (1990), MotU (2002), Kevin Smith's Revelation & Revolution, Netflix's CGI He-Man (2021) - each with their own twists on the IP. Even the Filmation cartoon itself was a pretty big departure from the original He-Man comics. While it may be a low bar, compare what you see in the trailer with the '80s Masters of the Universe movie. So far, this feels closer than what I think many were expecting.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

People who like fantasy movies?

I think having a movie starring a character named "He-Man" that isn't in on the joke is going to probably get A) roasted by Millennials, Gen Z and Gen Alpha and B) get dragged into weird Boomer culture war issues (and him having his pronouns on his desk sign is just going to accelerate this).

The portion of Gen X that was watching this cartoon after school in the early 1980s might be excited about this, but I agree with @Reynard that the audience beyond that is pretty questionable.

 

[Reynard]

Even the Filmation cartoon itself was a pretty big departure from the original He-Man comics.

Wasn't the cartoon first, made specifically to sell the toys?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Wasn't the cartoon first, made specifically to sell the toys?

There was a prequel crossover DC Comic (I believe it was in DC Comics Presents, the blandly named Superman team-up comic), but even that was explicitly meant to hype the toys that were coming momentarily.

 

[Aldarc]

Wasn't the cartoon first, made specifically to sell the toys?

Actually not. The comic came first with the toys. An Exec pointed out that kids may not be able to read a comic so they BS'ed about how there was going to be a cartoon and then went to Filmation to make it. Filmation created the whole pink/violet pastel Prince Adam secret identity aspect for their show. Before that, He-Man was basically just a barbarian without a secret identity, and Skeletor was a demon.

Netflix's The Toys That Made Us has an incredible episode talking about the development of Masters of the Universe.




"I don't give a f*ck if it's as big as a horse, put a f*ckin' saddle on it!"

 

[Willie the Duck]

I am curious who this is aimed at. As an 80s kid (born 1975) I have many fond memories of MotU. This trailer does not look much like that, and certainly doesn't feel aimed at GenX (which is totally fair, don't get me wrong). But does GenZ know or care about He-Man? Is their He-Man an Earth Boy?

There have been several revivals. It's also a at least as easy a story to jump into as a bunch of other GenX properties that have gotten cinematic reintroductions (Transformers, most notably). Intriguingly, if you're mostly bringing in new viewers, it is a interesting that there already is a perfectly good 'He-man, but he comes from Earth' out there -- Flash Gordon. So there must be something about MotU that does indeed have draw (well, that and Ming the Merciless is a lot harder to deal with than just He-Man).

I think having a movie starring a character named "He-Man" that isn't in on the joke is going to probably get A) roasted by Millennials, Gen Z and Gen Alpha and B) get dragged into weird Boomer culture war issues (and him having his pronouns on his desk sign is just going to accelerate this).

It is notable that the film is MotU with no mention of He-Man. I suspect they are going to go all-in on him getting that moniker as cultural confusion from the Eternians or the like.

There was a prequel crossover DC Comic (I believe it was in DC Comics Presents, the blandly named Superman team-up comic), but even that was explicitly meant to hype the toys that were coming momentarily.

And the toys themselves came with miniature comics with another continuity, slightly different from either of those. It was one of those things where they couldn't keep up with themselves trying to get their stuff out the door. There was a good episode of Netflix's The Toys that Made Us on the subject.

 

[jdrakeh]

I loved the trailer. I'm looking forward to seeing this.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It is notable that the film is MotU with no mention of He-Man.

It's in the trailer at 1:56, so they're not keeping it a secret.

We'll see. I'm sure we'll hear from a lot of enthusiastic fans over the weekend, but the proof will be how it actually does on release.

I hope I'm wrong and it's a big hit, so fans can get more. It certainly looks loads better than the Dolph Lundgren one (which I saw in theaters, oy).

 

[Distracted DM]

IMO it could use more practical effects over CGI, but it has all my nostalgia bones tickled. I liked it, would like it more with practical effects.

 

[Willie the Duck]

It's in the trailer at 1:56, so they're not keeping it a secret.

The film is called Masters of the Universe, not He-Man, or He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

I hope I'm wrong and it's a big hit, so fans can get more. It certainly looks loads better than the Dolph Lundgren one (which I saw in theaters, oy).

Most things do. Other than early paychecks for Lundgren and Courtney Cox and giving Frank Langella a chance to show how much he can chew the scenery when he just doesn't care, that one was not worth its film.