By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 21 seconds ago
The first Masters of the Universe trailer just dropped, giving fans a chance to see He-Man and his friends in all their live-action glory. So far, most reactions have discussed the solid effects, inspired casting (Idris Elba as Man-at-Arms!), and cool designs (miraculously, Skeletor actually looks like his cartoon counterpart). Fans have also noted that the upcoming film has been inspired by superhero films such as Thor: Ragnarok and Superman (2026).
But as an ‘80s-born manchild with a He-Man themed home office, I wanted to focus on something a little different: the Easter eggs! For fans with long memories, this trailer is filled with tributes to the original toys and He-Man’s tangled lore. If you’d like to “have the power” to appreciate all the nerdy nods and heroic homages, keep reading to discover the coolest Easter eggs in Masters of the Universe!
Sorceress Hiding In Plain Sight
At the beginning of the trailer, we see a colorful bird flying over the fantasy world of Eternia. She pops up again later, still soaring over everything and everyone. Considering how much of this trailer focuses on swords and sorcery, you might be wondering why the heck this bird (and not even, like, a robot bird) is featured so prominently.
The answer is that this isn’t just any bird: that’s the Sorceress, who (at least, in the original Masters of the Universe cartoon) is a mystical guardian of Castle Grayskull and can transform herself into a falcon at will. She’s a major part of early franchise lore and, in the earlier cartoon, the secret mother of Teela. When she’s not in bird form, the Sorceress is played by Morena Baccarin, who (after starring in both Deadpool and Gotham) is no stranger to colorful genre storytelling.
A Shared Origin Story
One major lore change the Masters of the Universe trailer makes is making He-Man a native Eternian who, Superman-style, is sent to Earth for his own protection. This never happened in the original cartoon, although that show did reveal that He-Man’s mother was originally from Earth. If the movie doesn’t change this fact, then it makes a lot of sense that she would send her son to a familiar place where he could get a cushy email job instead of fighting for his life in brutal attacks on the palace.
Speaking of which, the trailer highly implies that the violent attacks against the royal kingdom we see in flashback are what cause Marlena to send her son to Earth. We never see who is leading these attacks, but chances are that it is Skeletor; in the 2002 animated revival, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, we see that Skeletor was once a normal man (albeit a blue one) named Keldor who attacked the palace and tried to throw acid at Captain Randor. The future king deflected the attack, and the acid horribly disfigured Keldor, transforming him into an evil skeleton man.
This is presumably why they cast Jared Leto as this villain: to show him as the handsome Keldor before he is transformed into a ghoulish monster. My theory is that he is leading the attack in the trailer that causes Marlena to exile Adam to Earth and that he will (as in the cartoon) get disfigured during the attack. In this way, the film will link the origins of He-Man and Skeletor together in a way the franchise has never done before.
The Big Deal About Big Jim
One fun detail we learn about He-Man’s time on Earth is that he becomes a real geek who hyperfocuses on swords and sorcery. This is presumably why he ends up at a nerdy toy store, tugging on a sword held by a statue of a barbarian. While that statue is a cool Easter egg unto itself (more on this in a minute), there’s something fairly innocuous hiding in the background: a Big Jim toy box.
Big Jim is important to the history of He-Man because Mattel ultimately reworked some of these older toy designs for their own Masters of the Universe figures. The most famous example of this is that Battle Cat (He-Man’s faithful green tiger) was originally created from a Big Jim tiger mold. By including this box in the background of a pivotal scene, the Masters of the Universe movie honors the original Mattel toys that helped to first bring He-Man to life.
He-Man Meets His Own Toy
The goofiest moment in the Masters of the Universe trailer is when He-Man is trying to remove his own Power Sword from the hands of a life-size barbarian statue. Most casual viewers of this trailer have simply assumed that this is supposed to be a statue of Conan the Barbarian. However, this is actually a statue of Vikor, a different character created by original He-Man designer Mark Taylor.
When Taylor was first figuring out He-Man’s design, he created this character as part of his concept art. Obviously, Mattel went with one of Taylor’s other ideas for their final He-Man design, but they eventually turned the earlier design into a character named Vikor, who was reimagined as an earlier protector of the Power Sword. Incidentally, the final He-Man design was based on Taylor’s concept for a figure named Torak; look closely and you can actually see the “Torak” name hidden in the trailer’s toy shop scene!
A Very Special Release Date
The final Easter egg in the Masters of the Universe trailer is hidden in the last place you’d think to look: the release date. The film is set to premiere on June 5, which seems ideal for a nostalgic summer blockbuster. Therefore, casual fans had no real reason to believe that this date had any special significance.
However, June 5th also happens to be the birthday of Mark Taylor, the aforementioned designer who created He-Man’s iconic look. Taylor had no way of knowing it at the time, but his brilliant design ended up changing the landscape of both pop culture and toy history. He sadly passed away in 2021, but the upcoming Masters of the Universe movie will release on what would have been his 85th birthday, helping to honor the legacy of He-Man’s most important creator.
