‘It’s as big as Marvel and DC’: A reboot stuck in development hell since 2007 overestimates its importance

There’s a fine line between ambition and hubris, but you’re entirely entitled to your own opinion on Mattel boss Ynon Kreiz claiming the in-development Masters of the Universe reboot has the potential to rival cinema’s biggest and most successful shared universes.

While The Lost City directors Adam and Aaron Nee are on course to succeed where so many others have failed since the project was first announced to be in the works all the way back in 2007 – with Kyle Allen cast as He-Man, no less – there’s still a long way to go before anyone can even consider the prospect of a franchise a viable possibility.

That hasn’t dissuaded Kreiz from thinking big, though, after he outlined his intentions for the property in an interview with The New Yorker.

“It’s as big as Marvel and DC. It’s hundreds of pages of characters and sorcerers and vehicles and weaponry – you name it. And then you flip through the pages, and here’s a movie, and here’s a movie, and here’s a TV show… It’s endless!”

As much as you can’t fault his optimism, looking at the sheer number of filmmakers and stars to have cycled in and out of a Masters of the Universe do-over in the last decade of a half, perhaps the best approach is to take it one film at a time to see if audiences respond.

Then again, Adam Nee also added that “one of our big goals – the same as Mattel’s – is to be building a huge, world-building franchise,” so at least the directors and executives are on exactly the same page.