‘The Lost City’ directors explain how it prepared them for ‘Masters of the Universe’

In The Lost City, directors the Nee brothers are resurrecting the action-adventure romcom genre that hasn’t really been a thing since the Romancing the Stone movies of the 1980s. Ironically enough, the duo’s next project is another revamp of a classic ’80s project. Namely, they’ll be bringing He-Man back to live-action in Netflix’s Masters of the Universe reboot.

Unsurprisingly, then, the directors feel their experience on The Lost City helped inform how they will handle reimagining Prince Adam of Eternia for a new generation. While speaking to Variety, Adam and Aaron Nee explained that what they learned on Lost City was how to treat a genre they loved as kids with a reverence and respect, despite its hokier elements.

“In terms of Lost City helping to pave the way for Masters of the Universe, it was very important to us that with Masters of the Universe we hold onto what that was for us as kids,” said Aaron. “That Masters of the Universe property and those toys for us as kids, it wasn’t silly to us or absurd to us, it had a depth and a meaning to it.”

At the same time, The Lost City is a very self-aware, tongue-in-cheek film, so the Nees will be looking to take this approach to their Masters movie, too, aiming for “core human empathy” while also embracing the “crazy” and “colorful” nature of the He-Man mythology.

“But what we don’t want to do is lose the fact that it is wild and these are crazy characters and colorful, and that was part of the balancing act that we were trying to do with Lost City, too, is hold onto something that has a core human empathy to it and yet isn’t afraid to have fun and get crazy and have wild things happen and have wild characters,” Aaron continued.

Kyle Allen (West Side Story) will be wielding the Sword of Power in the title role of the new Masters of the Universe, following Noah Centineo exiting the production before the Nees came aboard. Hollywood has been trying to get another live-action He-Man off the ground basically ever since the 1987 flick that starred Dolph Lundgren, but it seems like it’s taken the Nees, with their very specific vision for the IP, to make it a reality. Hopefully it’ll prove to be less controversial with the fandom than Netflix’s Masters of the Universe: Revelation animated series.

While we eagerly await more on their next project, The Lost City — featuring Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, and Brad Pitt — is playing in theaters now.