After nearly two decades being stuck in development hell, the Masters of the Universe reboot is finally making significant progress moving forward. Along with Nicholas Galitzine being cast to play Prince Adam/He-Man, it was announced in August that Camila Mendes will play the badass Teela in the long-awaited project. Now as we get going into September, the actress who will play Evil-Lyn has been revealed, too, and this casting update makes me all the more eager to learn who will be playing her boss, Skeletor, a.k.a. He-Man’s arch-nemesis.
Community, GLOW and Promising Young Woman actress Alison Brie has been tapped to play Evil-Lyn in Masters of the Universe, as shared by THR. She will be the second person to play the role in live-action, following Meg Foster in 1987’s Masters of the Universe movie. Much more recently, Game of Thrones’ Lena Headley voiced the character in Masters of the Universe: Revelation and the follow-up Revolution, and Grey Griffin voiced her in He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Those shows can be streamed with a Netflix subscription.
Alison Brie’s Evil-Lyn casting comes as the actress stars in the Peacock subscription-exclusive thriller limited series Apples Never Fall. For those unfamiliar with Evil-Lyn, she is a witch who serves as Skeletor’s second-in-command and is much smarter than the skeleton-faced antagonist’s usual minions. As such, not only has she frequently hatched her own sinister schemes, she’s freely admitted that one days she hopes to take Skeletor’s power for herself and rule Eternia with an iron fist. However, Revelation and Revolution delivered a more sympathetic portrayal of Evil-Lyn, so I’ll be curious to see if the Masters of the Universe reboot will follow suit or just depict her as a straightforward villain.
Either way, it’s nice to see Alison Brie has finally scored a role in a live-action tentpole movie, with Amazon MGM Studios teaming up with Mattel Films for Masters of the Universe following the project previously being housed at Netflix. While I’m certainly intrigued to see how Brie does at Evil-Lyn, as mentioned earlier, this also makes me more curious about who this reboot will cast as Skeletor. As a Community fan, I’m strangely interested in the prospect of co-star Joel McHale tackling that role before they reunite for Peacock’s Community movie, though I doubt it’ll actually happen. Whomever it ends up being, my fingers are crossed that he and Brie have the right kind of chemistry to make this villainous pair pop on the big screen.
Directed by Travis Knight and written by Chris Butler, Masters of the Universe is slotted for June 5, 2026. With the casting news that’s been coming in these last few weeks, it’s a good bet that production is set to begin soon.