{"id":18169,"date":"2026-05-22T01:21:38","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T01:21:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/22\/masters-of-the-universe-brings-80-icons-roaring-to-life-exclusive-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T01:21:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T01:21:38","slug":"masters-of-the-universe-brings-80-icons-roaring-to-life-exclusive-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/22\/masters-of-the-universe-brings-80-icons-roaring-to-life-exclusive-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"'Masters of the Universe' brings '80 icons roaring to life \u2013 Exclusive – USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seeing Fisto, Ram Man, Trap-Jaw and, yes, He-Man walk around in real life made \u201cMasters of the Universe\u201d director Travis Knight<\/a> feel like a kid again.
\u201cI played with these little plastic action figures, and to see these giant, real-life humans wearing these amazing costumes, it was actually quite moving for me,\u201d Knight says.
And if you have no idea who any of those names are, that\u2019s OK. Knight has fond memories of \u201cMasters of the Universe\u201d<\/a> toys, cartoons and action figures from when they launched in the early 1980s. And now, he\u2019s joyfully introducing these colorful personalities to a younger generation with his new movie (in theaters June 5)<\/a>.
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Nicholas Galitzine (“Red, White & Royal Blue,” “Purple Hearts”) stars<\/a> in the fantasy adventure as Adam Glenn, who was sent away from his homeland of Eternia at age 10 \u2013 along with the magical Sword of Power \u2013 to keep him safe from the evil forces of Skeletor (Jared Leto). Adam lost the weapon during his trippy journey to Earth, and now as an adult, he seeks out the sword so he can get home. It leads to a reunion with old friends like Man-at-Arms (Idris Elba) and Teela (Camila Mendes) but also Adam striving to become the best man \u2013 and He-Man \u2013 he can be.
Knight originally fell in love with this world \u2013 and still adores it \u2013\u00a0because of how strange and \u201cout there\u201d it was. \u201cThey had so many different combinations that should not go together,\u201d he says. \u201cBarbarians in furry knickers with battle axes and swords. Robots with laser guns. Spaceships and catapults. Dudes with neon DayGlo leggings, and a guy with a skull for a face.
\u201cHe-Man was just a mash-up of all these crazy things that I loved.\u201d
\u201cMasters of the Universe\u201d is dripping with nostalgia \u2013 there is, of course, plenty of old-school He-Man Easter eggs but also a heavy \u201cFlash Gordon\u201d influence and \u201880s rock guitar courtesy of Queen\u2019s Brian May. It also cleverly explores He-Man mythology through a kid\u2019s perspective.
Names for heroes like Mekaneck, Fisto and Ram Man as well as villains such as Beast Man and Trap Jaw come directly from the Reagan-era toy line<\/a>. But in the film, the characters are called that because it\u2019s what 10-year-old Adam dubbed them as he drew pictures of them, remembering his time on Eternia.
\u201cEternia is, on some level, sort of a representation of the things that we love from our childhood, and it’s viewed through a child’s eyes, and he still kind of sees it that way,\u201d Knight says of his main character. \u201cIt was a really fun and interesting way for us to not only evoke the nostalgia that people who grew up with this stuff remember, but also a way in for new audiences who don’t know anything about the lore of the characters, who’ve never played with a He-Man doll or who\u2019ve only seen a meme online.\u201d
Of course, grown-ups who remember Evil-Lyn<\/a> and Moss Man from back in the day will get chills hearing Galitzine yell, “By the power of Grayskull … I have the power!” and transforming into the extremely ripped He-Man. But Knight didn\u2019t want \u201cMasters of the Universe\u201d to be just for He-Man lovers. He wanted to make a movie for everybody.
\u201cMy hope is that whether you’re a fan or not,\u201d he says, \u201cyou’re still going to have a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seeing Fisto, Ram Man, Trap-Jaw and, yes, He-Man walk around in real life made \u201cMasters of the Universe\u201d director Travis Knight feel like a kid again.\u201cI played with these little plastic action figures, and to see these giant, real-life humans wearing these amazing costumes, it was actually quite moving for me,\u201d Knight says.And if you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}