The new Masters of the Universe movie gets pushed back

The cinematic reboot of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe gets delayed by a year yet again.

A Masters of the Universe reboot, based on the popular Mattel toy line, is finally happening after a decade of developmental headaches, but producers at Sony are making us wait on it for another year. New release date of March 5, 2021, is being settled on, for now, reported Variety.

This is nothing new for the project, so beset with difficulties as it is, not even in this calendar year. Only last month, Sony announced it was pushing Masters of the Universe back until 2020, knowing it wasn’t ready for its original release slated for this December.

In no way was it going to make that date, considering cameras hadn’t rolled and the production lost its director. Screenwriter, known for his obsession with comic-book characters, and Blade: Trinity director David Goyer left because of budgetary problems. Duties passed to Goyer after being in the hands of McG (Charlie’s Angels) and Jon Chu (Crazy Rich Asians, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, the misfire Jem and the Holograms) before that.

Kick-Ass 2 and Truth or Dare helmer Jeff Wadlow was in line to direct at one point too. Sony balked at Wadlow’s pitch that was decidedly more, as he put it in one interview, “irreverent”:

"“I brought them in [his He-Man action figures] and put them on the table and was like, ‘This is why I’m a director!’ I wrote a scene where Prince Adam meets Ram Man and says to him, ‘So, they call you Ram Man, huh?’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah.’ And he goes, ‘Do you like that name?’ And Ram Man goes, ‘I’m owning it.’ So, there was an irreverence to it, but at the time, that just didn’t gel with what they wanted to do.”"

Currently, the team of Aaron and Adam Nee are taking over as directors with Iron Man and MIB: International writers Matt Holloway and Art Marcum reworking Goyer’s script.

Noah Centineo is tapped to play Prince Adam, He-Man’s alter ego. Centineo, a young actor known mostly for Netflix movies like To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, was rumored at first. He finally confirmed his casting to Jimmy Fallon a few weeks ago on The Tonight Show. 

This new attempt is over 30 years in the making. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe were previously adapted into a movie in 1987 at the height of the cartoon’s popularity. Starring Dolph Lundgren as He-Man and Frank Langella as Skeletor, and loosely adapting the story behind the toys and the show, the big-budget picture bombed disastrously.

While it’s found a cult audience in recent years, the failure of Masters of the Universe was a turning point for both the character and the studio, Cannon Films. The plug was pulled on a planned sequel which later turned into the Jean-Claude Van Damme vehicle Cyborg.

In an odd twist, Centineo will also be in the next Charlie’s Angels installment, a franchise once revived by McG.