The new Masters of the Universe trailer just dropped, and while many people are pulling this adaptation of the beloved, colorful cartoon as drab and gray (and casting Jared Leto as Skeletor – a wild choice after Morbius, Joker and Tron), it's also been criticized for a reason. he-male pronoun
“Now they're making Masters of the Universe and giving He-Man pronouns,” John Del Arrows said to the tune of 3,000 likes without a hint of irony. “These people won't stop until they ruin everything.”
You might not know it when 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, 'radical' phenomenon: everyone has it. You too, dear reader.
He is literally called He-Man
He-Man, from his beginnings, always had a pronoun in his name – he It's not exactly subtle. But in the new trailer, Adam Glenn (the man behind biceps and the 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 putting them to work, but it's proven enough to send a very vocal crowd of Masters of the Universe fans into a frenzy.
Frankly, making a He-Man movie in 2026, I'd be a little upset if there wasn't a pronoun joke somewhere.
However, when asked why there was a problem with the he/him nameplate, Arrows claimed it was pushing an agenda to “normalize” pronouns – again, something everyone has. It's not hard to laugh at the idea of people going crazy he-People have pronouns; Do they want him to be called a (sorry) man? I'm not sure it's attractive, and it's a search engine nightmare. But hey, if that's what it takes, man and the masters of the universe are it.
- Release date
-
1983 – 1985-00-00
- showrunner
-
Lou Schimmer
- directors
-
Gwen Wetzler, Lou Kachivas, Marsh Lamore
- The authors
-
Douglas Booth, Larry DiTilio, Paul Dini, J. Michael Straczynski
- franchise(s)
-
Masters of the Universe
