Hollywood has been trying to get a new live action He-Man movie up off the ground ever since the original film was released back in the 1980’s. It was nearly made at Netflix a few years ago, but that idea was canned when Kevin Smiths’ Masters of the Universe cartoon sequel bombed with fans. Now it looks like Amazon are going ahead with it.

IGN:

Amazon MGM Studios’ and Mattel have cast Nicholas Galitzine (The Idea of You, Red, White, & Royal Blue) to star as He-Man in their upcoming live-action Masters of the Universe movie.

Galitzine was revealed to be joining the long-in-development film adaptation today, which will be directed by Travis Knight (Kubo and the Two Strings, Bumblebee). No plot details have been revealed, but the project is still expected to arrive in 2026.

“We’re thrilled to bring the beloved Masters of the Universe to life and couldn’t be more excited to announce the immensely talented Nicholas Galitzine as our He-Man,” head of film production and development at Amazon MGM Studios Julie Rapaport said in a statement. “Joining forces with director Travis Knight, Mattel, and Escape Artists, this reintroduction of the character and his universe will be an epic film that will delight audiences from here to Eternia.”

Chris Butler is writing the screenplay (its original draft was handled by David Callaham along with Aaron and Adam Nee). Escape Artists’ Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, and Steve Tisch are on the team as producers, as is Mattel Films president Robbie Brenner.

“Mattel Films is proud to work with Amazon and team up again with the incredible Courtenay Valenti, to bring Masters of the Universe to the big screen,” Brenner said. “We are thrilled to be producing alongside the highly respected and prolific Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, and Steve Tisch, with the visionary Travis Knight, and the charismatic and talented Nicholas Galitzine, our Prince Adam/He-Man!”

I watched both seasons of the Netflix series which was written by Smith. The first season was not my cup of tea. All the characters were angry and sad all the time and they didn’t really behave like the characters did in the original series from the 1980’s.

The second season was actually, surprisingly quite good. All the problems I had with the first season had been corrected and He-Man was back in action as a proper hero, and all the other characters has their moment to be heroic as well.

Unfortunately this was too little, too late for the majority of the fanbase, who abandoned the franchise in large numbers, and the bad word of mouth from the first season did enough damage for Netflix to cancel their live action version of the franchise.

However Amazon picked up the rights and looks to be going ahead with a new film. It seems strange that they cast someone who doesn’t look much like He-Man. I would have liked them to cast someone who looked a bit more like Dolph Lundgren. Regardless of what anyone thinks of that original movie from the 1980’s, Dolph sure did look like He-Man!

Amazon have had mixed success with another big franchise, the Lord of the Rings series “The Rings of Power”. Let’s see how they handle He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.