From Marvel and DC to Star Trek and Sonic the Hedgehog, Idris Elba has assembled an impressive collection of franchises he’s acted in. The latest of these is this summer’s Masters of the Universe, where he stars in the forthcoming reboot as Duncan, a.k.a. Man-At-Arms, one of He-Man’s key allies and adoptive father of Teela. Regarding why he decided to join the 2026 movie release, Elba revealed that he has a personal connection to Masters of the Universe stretching back decades.
While joining a major motion picture tied to existing IP can simply boil down to the paycheck for some actors, while others like the script they’ve read even without having any familiarity with the source material, Idris Elba goes way back with Masters of the Universe. As he told Empire:
It’s a really big part of my childhood. My parents couldn’t afford the Star Wars toys, and the He-Man toys were cheaper, because it wasn’t as big. So I had He-Man, She-Ra, Battle Cat… The cartoons were always a little bit more fun, a bit more camp, a bit more out-there.
Mattel launched Masters of the Universe as one of its toylines in 1982, and the animated series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe premiered a year later. Since Idris Elba was born in 1972, that means he was in just the right age range to enjoy those toys. Sure, they wouldn’t have been his first choice had his family been able to purchase those Star Wars toys, but it sounds like Elba had fun playing with He-Man and the gang, as well as watching their cartoon adventures.
Masters of the Universe was previously adapted into a movie in 1987, and a reboot had been stuck in development hell since 2009. Bumblebee Director Travis Knight signed on to helm the new movie in 2024, and when Idris Elba learned how faithful the filmmaker intended to stay to the MOTU mythology, he was eager to be involved, saying:
Travis, who’s an incredible director, wanted to pay homage to the aesthetic of the original. I was all for that. Though it made me think, ‘S–t, I’ve gotta get into the gym!’
By November 2024, Idris Elba was announced to be playing Man-At-Arms, and Masters of the Universe, which debuted its first trailer last month, began filming the following January and ended in July. Elba was impressed by the reboot’s Eternity sets and how the characters are being adapted for live-action this time around. As he put it:
It was like being at a big amusement arcade with all these massive characters.
After being stranded on Earth for 20 years, Masters of the Universe will follow Nicholas Galitzine’s Prince Adam Glenn rediscovering his Power Sword and returning to Eternia. He won’t have much time to enjoy a homecoming though, as Adam will have to team up with Man-At-Arms, Camila Mendes’ Teela, Kristen Wiig’s Roboto, Cringer/Battle Cat and more to defeat the evil forces led by Jared Leto’s creepy-looking Skeletor. With the Power Sword back in his hands, Adam will be able to transform into the mighty He-Man and embrace his heroic destiny.
Should Masters of the Universe be successful upon its release on June 5, Amazon MGM Studios will surely consider making a sequel. And should that get the greenlight, fingers crossed Idris Elba is brought back. If he had this much fun working on one MOTU movie, you know he’ll want another bite of that apple with another movie.