He-Man gets an origin story in Masters of the Universe trailer

We’ve got a brand new trailer for Masters of the Universe, the new film adaptation of the 1980s He-Man and the Masters of the Universe series.

As previously reported, Sony Pictures gained the rights in 2009, and there were multiple script rewrites and much shuffling of possible directors (with John Chu, McG, and David S. Goyer among the candidates). This went on until 2022, when Netflix acquired the rights after its success with animated shows starring Kyle Allen as He-Man. Netflix canceled the project the following year, though, citing budget concerns, so Allen never got that big-screen break. And then Amazon MGM stepped in, tapping Travis Knight (Bumblebee, Kubo and the Two Strings) as director and casting Nicholas Galitzine (2021’s Cinderella, 100 Nights of Hero) as He-Man.

In addition to Galitzine, the cast includes Camila Mendes as Teela; Jared Leto as Keldor/Skeletor; Alison Brie as Professor Evelyn Powers (aka Evil-Lyn), lieutenant to Skeletor; Idris Elba as Duncan/Man-at-Arms; Morena Baccarin as the Sorceress of Castle Grayskull; Johannes Haukur as Malcolm/Fisto; James Purefoy and Charlotte Riley as King Randor and Queen Marlena, rulers of Eternia; Sasheer Zamata as Suzie, Adam/He-Man’s BFF on Earth; Kristen Wiig as Roboto; Jon Xue Zhang as Ram-Man; Kojo Attah as the bounty hunter Tri-Klops; Sam C. Wilson as cyborg/weapons expert Kronis/Trap-Jaw; and Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson as Goat Man.

The first trailer dropped in January and gave us He-Man’s origin story. When he was 10 years old, Adam Glenn, prince of Eternia and our future He-Man, crash-landed on Earth—the home planet of his ex-astronaut mother, Queen Marlena, who sent him there for protection from the forces of Skeletor. The now-grown Adam is an office drone with a penchant for nerd culture who has been searching online for his magic sword, convinced it will show him “the way home” so that he can finally confront Skeletor.

This latest trailer opens with Adam being put in an otherworldly prison and telling his fellow prisoners that, while they likely don’t remember him, he knows all of them. He reunites with Man-at-Arms and Teela, as well as with the talking tiger, Cringer (who can transform into Battlecat).

Eternia has changed drastically in Adam’s absence, and he’s up against Skeletor’s formidable forces to save his home world—but he’ll need that magic sword to succeed. Man-at-Arms, who apparently knows something about failure, urges Adam to “take the sword, and when you fall, that’s your chance to stand tall.” Adam raises the sword and becomes He-Man. Once he fully masters that power, Skeletor just might be history.

Masters of the Universe hits theaters on June 5, 2026.