If you’re a fan of the Masters of the Universe franchise, then a Netflix subscription is a must-have these days. Along with both the kid-friendly He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Kevin Smith’s more mature Masters of the Universe: Revelation shows being available to watch on the service (with the storyline from the latter continuing in the near future with Masters of the Universe: Revolution), Netflix is now home to the upcoming live-action Masters of the Universe reboot movie that was previously housed at Sony. We’re still in the dark on what this particular adaptation will specifically deliver to audiences, but Yuri Lowenthal, who voices Prince Adam/He-Man in Netflix’s He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, has shared with CinemaBlend what he hopes to see from the upcoming movie.
Although my recent conversation with Yuri Lowenthal primarily focused on his forthcoming turn as Mon-El in the animated, direct-to-video DC movie Legion of Super-Heroes, in addition to hearing his reaction on Insomniac’s Spider-Man appearing in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (since he voices that iteration of the Web-Slinger), given the time he’s been spending as He-Man lately, I wanted to get the voice actor’s thoughts on the live-action Masters of the Universe reboot. Lowenthal expressed his desire to see the Netflix movie’s tone handled properly with the following sentiments:
It is amazing that they’ve really doubled down on He-Man. They have the Kevin Smith series coming out pretty much concurrently with our series, and then they’ve got this live-action one. I’m most curious to see… because it’s not our first He-Man and the Masters of the Universe film, [there’s] Dolph Lundgren’s, which we’ve seen, and I think because of what the original cartoon was, that is a really tough transition to live-action. You have to walk a fine line and you almost either have to go full-out camp with it, or you have to get really dark with it and sort of erase some of the comedy. If they could, I would love for them to find that magical in-between, because I think it’s there, and I’m just curious to see how they achieve it. I certainly don’t know the answer to those questions, but I’m definitely going to be sitting on my couch watching to see who solves it.
It’s been 36 years since the first Masters of the Universe movie, which starred Dolph Lundgren as Prince Adam/He-Man and Frank Langella as Skeletor, was released, so between that and its poor critical reception, we’re definitely due for another live-action take on this material. As Yuri Lowenthal sees it, this reboot is going to have a tough time treading the fine line between going too dark or too campy/lighthearted with the story, which may result in it primarily leaning in one direction or the other. However, if the new Master of the Universe does succeed in hitting that balance, Lowenthal will be a satisfied consumer.
The Masters of the Universe reboot was initially set up at Warner Bros. when it began development in 2007, but then it moved to Sony in 2009 and stayed there until Netflix acquired the project at the beginning of 2022. While there was a period when Black Adam’s Noah Centineo was going to play He-Man, now West Side Story’s Kyle Allen will bring the role to life. The Lost City’s The Nee Brothers are still attached to direct, and David Callaham of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings fame wrote the most recent draft of the script.
While we wait for updates on where things stand with the Masters of the Universe reboot at Netflix, you can listen to Yuri Lowenthal voice He-Man in He-Man and the Masters of the Universe’s three released seasons, with his costars include Kimberly Brooks, Judy Alice Lee, David Kaye, Antony Del Rio and Benjamin Diskin. If you’re interested in hearing Lowenthal’s Mon-El performance in Legion of Super-Heroes, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is releasing that on Digital, 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Combo and Blu-ray on February 7.
