Today many speak of it as one of the most anticipated releases of the summer, perhaps as a familiar and colorful contrast to denser proposals such as ‘The Odyssey‘. And yet, ‘Masters of the Universe’ has a history of war of rights, box office failures and various confrontations behind it that has turned it into a feat worthy of one of its most tumultuous adventures that, four decades after its creation, this Conan in space reaches the screens.
Failure after failure until the final victory. In August 1987. Cannon Films, the Israeli-American production company that had built its reputation on low-budget action films in franchises such as ‘The American Warrior’ or ‘Missing in Action’, bet heavily on ‘Masters of the Universe’ as an entry ticket to the Hollywood of the big studios. With a budget of $22 million (huge by Cannon standards) and ambitious marketing campaigns that presented it as capable of rubbing shoulders with ‘Star Wars’, the result was a resounding commercial failure: only 17.3 million in collection, which contributed to the collapse of the company.
Fans of the very popular animated series that served as an advertisement for the new releases of the toy line protested against the most discussed decision in the movie: Instead of showing the fantastical world of Eternia, most of the story took place on Earth, far from the magical creatures and epic battles that had fueled the spectacular illustrations on the action figure boxes. The reason for that decision was strictly economic: Eternia was very difficult to bring to life on the screen with the budget Cannon had at his disposal.
39 years of waiting. What came next was one of the longest sagas of frustrated development in modern cinema. The rights to the franchise passed successively through Warner Bros. (2007), Columbia Pictures (2009), Netflix (2022) and finally Amazon MGM Studios. Multiple names were linked to creative teams and cast, such as Jon M. Chu, McG or John Woo, and Noah Centineo was in talks for the lead role. Already with Amazon, Travis Knight was announced as director and Chris Butler as screenwriter. Was the first time in almost four decades that a ‘Masters of the Universe’ completed its production.
FBarbie actor. The film comes in a very specific context for Mattel: the company has been trying to become a generator of successful franchises for Hollywood for two years. ‘Barbie’ raised more than $1.4 billion worldwide and won an Oscar, becoming the benchmark for Mattel’s entire film strategy. Since then, the company has more than fifteen announced projects including adaptations of Hot Wheels or Polly Pocket.
The comparison with ‘Barbie’, however, falls apart in some respects. They are essentially different franchises and possibly very different films (‘Masters of the Universe’, quite possibly, has nothing of that intelligent pop feminism capealthough it very possibly has the same ironic approach to characters who, without humor, would not support an updated review). The toys are not the same either: Barbie is a ubiquitous brand in global culture, while He-Man is niche generational nostalgia.
A nostalgic artifact. Travis Knight’s debut was ‘Bumblebee’, the excellent spin-off of ‘Transformers’ that bathed in adventurous simplicity what in Michael Bay’s installments had been a crazy epic. From his ‘Masters of the Universe’ has said that “we are not making a cartoon, we are making a live-action fantasy film”
The cast is one of the strong points of the project: Nicholas Galitzine is He-Man, Camila Mendes is Teela, Alison Brie is Evil-Lyn, Morena Baccarin is the Sorceress, Idris Elba is Man-At-Arms and Jared Leto is Skeletor. Travis Knight is very aware of the responsibility he has to the franchise’s fans: “When we started envisioning this world, we wanted to do the fans justice,” Knight said, adding that “watching them come to life on the big screen makes you a little emotional.”
The challenge. The first box office forecasts They place the domestic opening between 25 and 35 million dollars for the weekend of June 5. With an estimated budget of between 170 and 200 million dollars, they are clearly insufficient. Can the movie get young audiences interested in He-Man, Skeletor, and Eternia in 2026? Without a doubt, a pertinent question, because it can guarantee continuity for other toy franchises or the lock for Castle Greyskull for another four decades.
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