Thumb War
Thumb War
Bleav, Rachel Selig & Jason Doyle
Masters of the Universe Review: Does He-Man’s Big Reboot Have a Big Identity Crisis?
24 minutes Posted Jun 14, 2026 at 2:34 am.
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Show notes

Spoilers ahead for Masters of the Universe.

Jason and Rachel review Masters of the Universe, the new He-Man movie from Amazon MGM and Mattel.

Rachel grew up on He-Man, She-Ra, and the whole Masters of the Universe toy-cartoon universe. Jason mostly remembers it as the moment he realized cartoons could just be commercials for toys. So naturally, expectations were complicated.

We get into why the new Masters of the Universe feels like it can’t decide what kind of movie it wants to be, whether He-Man works as modern IP, the strange tone, the comedy that doesn’t always land, the nostalgia callbacks, the “He-Man” name problem, the 1987 Dolph Lundgren version, the She-Ra tease, and why Skeletor is easily the best thing in the movie.

Plus: Jared Leto, Alison Brie, Idris Elba, Battle Cat asking for consent, Ram Man, Fisto, Brian May guitars, toy-commercial cynicism, masculine legacy confusion, and whether hardcore Masters of the Universe fans will have a better time than we did.

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