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As far as the toy company Mattel was concerned in the 1980s, the world was split into two groups. Girls played with Barbie and boys played with He-Man. Sure, the respective lines occasionally made gestures to inclusivity, introducing She-Ra and making Ken a bit more active. But for the most part, the toys reinforced indivisible gender roles.
The upcoming Masters of the Universe movie is going to continue that trend, but not in the way you’d expect. Chris Butler, one of the movie’s final screenwriters, told EW, “A lot of what Travis [Knight, director] and I wanted it to be was to nod to the thing that we love so much as kids, take it back to its roots…. If Barbie was the toy for girls, He-Man was the toy for men. It was about might and power and being top dog. And so definitely thematically, I wanted to lean into that and what it means to be a man and what it means to be a human.”
In many ways, that was the major theme of the Barbie movie. Of course, director Greta Gerwig and co-writer Noah Baumbach poke fun at masculinity, especially when Ryan Gosling‘s Ken follows Margot Robbie‘s Barbie into the real world to learn about patriarchy. However, most of the movie is concerned with how women see themselves. As a Mattel project, the film certainly positions Barbie dolls as the means of liberation, as explained in its 2001 style opening scene, and by its multitude of Barbies with different body types, skin colors, and interests. But it also insists that there are many different ways to be a woman, even if those types sometimes come into conflict with one another.
For Knight, that’s a message that could resonate with male viewers. Back in the 1980s, when Masters of the Universe was at its peak popularity, boys were told a simple message: “Real men don’t cry. Boys don’t cry,” recalled Knight. “If you express any kind of vulnerability, you must immediately punch a fence post to establish equilibrium.”
Few franchises exemplified that ethos better than Masters of the Universe. At its heart, the series portrayed the meek Prince Adam as unable to deal with the problems facing the kingdom of Eternia. Instead, he had to transform into the hyper-masculine He-Man to save the day, a process he underwent by exclaiming, “I have the power!” Although each episode of the cartoon series kept things at a kid-friendly level, they always ended with physical conquest: He-Man overpowered his enemies and saved the day, and only then could he return to the less imposing Adam.
As indicated by the movie’s first trailers, Masters of the Universe certainly isn’t going to avoid the franchise’s love of muscles and warfare. The marketing heavily features Nicholas Galitzine looking incredibly ripped in toy-accurate underpants and armor, waving his sword at Skeletor, a CGI creation to make Jared Leto into an equally-imposing monster man. Beyond the principal good guy and bad guy, the trailers showcase all manner of fighting, from spaceships blasting away at one another to magic users such as Evil-Lyn (Alison Brie) conjuring scary spells.
But the trailers also feature a lot of self-aware humor, often poking fun at the core principles. Take, for example, the bit in the first trailer that sees Adam, now an office drone in a meaningless job, finding the Power Sword in a store and trying to lift it. The camera zooms in on Galitzine’s straining face and cuts away to a clerk, dispassionately mocking him.
Between those two elements, it’s clear that Masters of the Universe is trying to do the same tightrope walk that Barbie pulled off, celebrating the source material while having fun with its sillier elements. It’s a challenge, but Knight thinks that the movie offers a unique opportunity. “It was a really interesting way for us to explore these things that are happening in our culture, for us to compare and contrast what that stuff meant in the ’80s versus what that means now,” he explained.
Can Masters of the Universe do it all: deliver a satisfying adventure romp, pay tribute to the beloved cartoon and toys, and offer a thoughtful critique of gender norms? If Barbie is any indication, then this He-Man does indeed have the power.
Masters of the Universe will arrive in theaters on June 5, 2026.
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