He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe Trailer Gives Pronouns For Adam And The Force
Posted by Jennifer Asencio | Published
As a child in the 1980s, my weekday afternoons after school were filled with the most critical consumption of the three cartoons that dominated children’s culture at the time. A trilogy, incl She-Ra, Princess of Power again The Thundercatsit started with what happened He-Man & The Masters of the Universe.
In yet another bid to revive 80s nostalgia, the first trailer made for the new Amazon Kings of The atmosphere you are released.
The Story Told By Amazon’s first trailer for He-Man
The movie trailer begins with a voiceover explaining that the fantastical aspects of the world of Eternia are real, while CGI shows its buildings, spaceships, and magic. The voiceover comes from Adam, who is shown as a child in this CGI world, and then as a young adult in a cool, normal Earthling room. He was driven away, according to the cart, by his mother, and taken to a place where he could not be found.
Naturally, that place is Earth, where we are treated to sad things, such as Adam’s office work (full of name-plates with pronouns) and the disapproval of a co-worker, who appears to be his boss, because of his “infatuation with crazy things.”
Apparently Adam tracks down the Power Sword, which he found at a hobby shop.
It pulls Teela into space to come pick him up and bring him home to save the planet.
We are then treated to a spectacle of scenes and urgent explanations from the queen as to why she banished Adam. The villains Skeletor and Evil-Lyn are shown, once again, lurking as dangerously as ever. We are even shown a famous transformation and a few pictures of He-Man himself, which proves that this origin story is not just Surf Dracula, and we will see a lot of heroes in the movie.
Wait, We’re Doing a Real World Thing Again?
First, the most striking thing about Adam in the trailer is that he is not overly muscled, though Prince Adam is. From the glimpse of He-Man we get at the end of the trailer, he has a little hair, but nothing like the Mattel toy that the cartoon is designed around.
Rather than being the spoiled, lazy prince who stalks Teela like he was on the show, this Adam is the Chosen One eagerly awaiting his Big Destiny.
As rich a world as Eternia apparently is, I’ve always wondered about the obsession filmmakers have with shoehorning “our world” into the mix. Dolph Lungren version of Masters of the Universe in 1987 he also did this. When we sat down to watch a cartoon, we wanted to be removed from the real world. It was disappointing that the Dolph Lundgren movie did it, and it’s disappointing that they’re doing it again.
Special Effects It Delivers
Some of the CGI is weird and cartoonish, but I won’t lie: the other looks really cool. The trailer shows us beautiful vistas and futuristic cities, ancient castles and magical works. Unlike a lot of CGI that looks like that animated sequence in Mary Poppins, the effects on Masters of the Universe it looks like they are part of the country.
The trailer does a good job of hiding the better-known names of the cast, with only Idris Elba appearing as the Man-At-Arms. Also lurking behind newcomers Nicholas Galitzine as Adam and Camila Mendez as Teela are Morena Baccarin as the Greyskull Witch, Alison Brie as Evil-Lyn, and Jared Leto as Skeletor.
Speaking of Skeletor, his makeup is also really cool, much better than when Frank Langella played him in 1987.
The same, unfortunately, can’t be said about Battle Cat, which looks like Jon Favreau’s “live action” ban. The King is the King.
He-Man Has His Pronouns, Is It A Joke Or Activism?
I can’t let Adam’s name go without saying anything. I don’t know if the point of his clearly expressed pronouns “He/Him” was tongue in cheek. It could be yet another sign of activism embedded in storytelling, though Masters of the Universe it cleans it.
The hero of the film is called “He-Man,” after all. He-Man was what all boys wanted to grow up to be, an icon of male heroism and might well, which is why the inclusion of his pronouns really stuck with me.
However, Masters of the Universe it might just be playing pronouns and banning business life by putting it on Adam’s desk. He-Man makes a big difference to the “modern superhero” because he undeniably embodies all the good things about masculinity. If Hollywood is ready to make fun of its activism, perhaps it’s a sign that movies will return to being about the story rather than the “message.”
However, the trailer doesn’t show any message at all, preferring to entertain the audience with special effects and fight scenes. Aside from the conflict between Prince Adam’s backstory and some of its characters, there’s nothing bad to say about what we’ve been shown so far. So, there is hope for that Masters of the Universe it won’t be another franchise wasted by modern Hollywood.
How Man Began
In its original form, He-Man it was about Prince Adam of Eternia and his secret, superhero-like identity as He-Man, a muscle-bound, shirtless barbarian with a magical sword. He-Man defended Eternia with the help of his friends, Battle Cat, Man-At-Arms, Teela, and the Sorceress of Castle Greyskull, from the evil machinations of the dreaded skull Skeletor and his tyrannical minions.
The show was interesting because it included all the best things about fantasy and science of the time: magic swords, witches and evil wizards, ray guns, spaceships, and alien planets. He-Man, as a character, was an old man’s mythical hero, full of muscle and prophecy. His backstory was that he was the spoiled son of the king and queen of the planet who was given the magical Power Sword to protect it and the universe from Skeletor’s evil magic, making him a better man.
It’s a movie Masters of the Universe is released in theaters on June 5, 2026.
