The new Masters of the Universe trailer just dropped, and while a lot of people are dragging this adaptation of a beloved, colourful cartoon for being drab and grey (and casting Jared Leto as Skeletor – a wild choice after Morbius, Joker, and Tron), it’s also drawn flak for one bizarre reason – giving He-man pronouns.
“Now they’re making a Masters of the Universe and giving He-Man pronouns,” said Jon Del Arroz without a hint of irony to the tune of 3,000 likes. “These people won’t stop until they ruin everything.”
You wouldn’t know it from arguing with strangers and bots on the internet, but the basic use of pronouns is taught at a very young age, usually between kindergarten and 1st grade. It’s not a modern, ‘woke’ phenomenon: everyone has them. Even you, dear reader.
He Is Literally Called He-Man
He-Man, from his inception, has always had a pronoun in his name – He. It’s not exactly subtle. But in the new trailer, Adam Glenn (the man behind the biceps and Power Sword) has a desk plaque that lists “He/Him” under his real name. It’s clearly a tongue-in-cheek joke playing on the fact that He-Man has always worn his pronouns on his sleeve, and is now fronting them at work, but it’s proved enough to send a very vocal crowd of Masters of the Universe fans into a blind fury.
Frankly, making a He-Man movie in 2026, I’d be a little upset if there wasn’t a pronoun joke in there somewhere.
However, when asked why exactly the He/Him nameplate was a problem, Arroz claimed that it’s pushing an agenda “to normalize” pronouns – again, the thing that everybody has. It’s hard not to laugh at the idea of people getting mad that He-Man has pronouns; do they want him (sorry) to be called Man? I’m not sure that’s as catchy, and it’s a search engine nightmare. But hey, if that’s what it takes, Man and the Masters of the Universe it is.
- Release Date
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1983 – 1985-00-00
- Showrunner
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Lou Scheimer
- Directors
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Gwen Wetzler, Lou Kachivas, Marsh Lamore
- Writers
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Douglas Booth, Larry DiTillio, Paul Dini, J. Michael Straczynski
- Franchise(s)
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Masters of the Universe
