‘Masters of the Universe’ directors promise a faithful adaptation

It seems like talks about the live adaptation of Masters of the Universe have been ongoing for an eternity. With several notable actors linked to play the iconic He-Man, Kyle Allen ultimately emerged victorious for the upcoming Netflix film. Although the idea of another live-action — following the 1987 cult classic — movie has received a mixed response from fans, directors Aaron and Adam Nee have promised to stay faithful in their reboot. 

In a conversation with SlashFilm, Aaron shared that they wanted to revive the feeling of empowerment the characters made them, and others, feel as kids. 

It’s a wild, crazy property, and we wanted to keep it wild and crazy. Like, you had just wacky characters, but what we also wanted to keep is that, what it was to experience those toys and those cartoons as kids. Whereas kids, we took it completely seriously, and trying to tap into, what was it that it was making us feel then? That empowerment that made us feel, and that sort of wide-eyed wonder of the incredible things that can happen, and the incredible worlds that you can encounter. And so we want that wildness, but also the sort of reverence and love of it, that we saw it with through the filter of our child eyes.

He further doubled down on the strong ties many people had to the universe while growing up and decided to keep the crazy pieces of what made the original so fun. 

And that’s what we are trying to hold onto is, what was that sparking inside of us, as kids? And so, we want that, at its core, that very basic human connection that we were feeling while not going, “Well, we’re grownups now. So we can’t really have a character named Ram-Man, we can’t really have Fisto.” Instead it’s like, “No, we’re going to have that.” How do you pull in like all of the kind of just wildness and craziness, but do it with love and affection?

Adam admitted that while the original characters and world are all classics and are revered, it’s still important for those making it not to take things so seriously. 

Filming for the new Masters of the Universe film will commence in New Mexico in June. Since Netflix acquired the film from Sony, David Callahan and the Nee Brothers have also written a new draft of the screenplay.