First Masters of the Universe Teaser Trailer Hopes You Also Miss the ’80s
Even though Stranger Things is over, it seems like '80s nostalgia is still going strong—or at least the first teaser trailer for the Masters of the Universe seems to think so. Although light on footage from the upcoming film (a full trailer will be released tomorrow), the 30-second spot is an explicit appeal to those who remember the era when He-Man made his debut.
"Not long ago, when times were simpler, this was a healthy breakfast, this was a powerful workout, and this was a hero," a retro-sounding voiceover explains in the trailer as shots of breakfast cereal, pilates class, and a clip from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, which ran from 1983 to 1985, play.
"Perhaps now more than ever, we need that kind of hero again," the voiceover continues before showing a few brief flashes of scenes from the live-action adaptation. Nicholas Galitzine plays Prince Adam, who has been living on Earth for 15 years but is being summoned back to his sci-fi fantasy homeworld of Eternia by the Sword of Power. There are brief shots of Idris Elba as Man-at-Arms and Camila Mendes as Teela along with Cringer, Prince Adam's big pet cat. There's no sneak peek of Galitzine in Prince Adam's He-Man persona nor is there any footage of Alison Brie as Evil-Lyn or Jared Leto as the Skeletor.
A full trailer for Masters of the Universe will be released on Thursday, January 22. The movie will hit theaters on June 5.
Masters of the Universe Is a Test of How Strong '80s Nostalgia Is at the Box Office
Just about every boy who grew up in the '80s is familiar with Masters of the Universe, a Mattel line of action figures that was turned into a cartoon. (That cartoon, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, spawned a spin-off, She-Ra: Princess of Power.) Kevin Smith rebooted the cartoon for a Netflix series that made its debut in 2021 and ended in 2024. This series was well-regarded but it was very much intended for fans of the original series who had grown up. Another show, a CGI series, aired on Netflix at the same time; it was slightly less reliant on nostalgia.
The big test for the upcoming live-action movie, then, is whether or not audiences who aren't already fans of the '80s IP are excited to go see this movie. For more than a decade now, there have been reboot or remakes of '80s shows and films on the big screen, like RoboCop (2014), The A-Team (2010), The Karate Kid (2010) Karate Kid: Legends (2025), Red Dawn (2012), The Toxic Avenger (2023), Child's Play (2019), and any number of Ghostbusters sequels or reboots. Many of those movies underperformed, especially the more recent ones.
Stranger Things, which basically was pure, uncut '80s nostalgia, ended last year—a decade after it premiered in 2016. There was certainly less enthusiasm for the final season. There's a decent case to be made that audiences aren't as enamored with reheated '80s IP, especially younger audiences who were born in a year that begins with a "2" and have no firsthand familiarity of inherent appreciation of pop culture that's beloved by Gen X.
So, the fact that the first teaser for Masters of the Universe is so nakedly nostalgic—to the point where it describes the '80s in a halcyon way as a simpler time—suggests that the film isn't really trying to reach a wider audience. It remains to be seen if '80s nostalgia alone will be enough to make the movie, which has a reported budget between $170 to 200 million, a hit.