141 min | PG-13 | June 5, 2026 | Amazon MGM Studios
Travis Knight makes the case that He-Man always deserved better. For anyone who grew up with the figures, the nostalgia hits a specific nerve, and the performances earn it.
The last time anyone put He-Man on a movie screen was 1987, and that film is remembered mostly as a punchline. Travis Knight argues the property deserved better. Prince Adam was raised on Earth, cut off from Eternia for fifteen years. The Sword of Power pulls him home to a kingdom broken under Skeletor, and to take it back he has to become He-Man and reckon with the family and world he lost. The setup is pure Saturday morning cartoon, and Knight does not apologize for it. He leans in. The film is built for people who had the action figures, and it treats their nostalgia as something to honor rather than mock.
Nicholas Galitzine plays Adam with more conviction than the material strictly requires. He sells both the lost prince and the impossible hero, and he never winks at the camera. Camila Mendes gives Teela spine and wit. The surprise is Jared Leto as Skeletor. Leto pursued the role and plays the villain as a study in wounded male ego, all grievance and theatrical menace. It could have been ridiculous. Instead it works. Idris Elba, Kristen Wiig, and Alison Brie populate Eternia with actors who take the cartoon logic seriously. The performances are the reason the film clears the low bar its premise sets and then keeps climbing.
Knight came up at Laika directing Kubo and the Two Strings and Bumblebee, and he knows how to stage spectacle with actual weight. Cinematographer Fabian Wagner shoots Eternia with scale and saturated color. Production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas builds a world that honors the source without looking like a toy commercial. Daniel Pemberton’s score swings between synth nostalgia and full orchestral muscle. The action is legible, which is rarer than it should be. The film knows exactly who it is for and dresses accordingly.
This is fan service done with care rather than contempt. Castle Grayskull, the Power Sword, the transformation into the most powerful man in the universe. Knight plays all of it straight, because the only way to make this material land is to believe in it completely. For the Gen X and elder millennial audience that grew up with the cartoon, the film hits the nerve it is aiming for, and it earns the hit by respecting the world instead of laughing at it. The result is a blockbuster that remembers childhood without condescending to the adult watching. That balance is harder than it looks, and the film mostly nails it.