Written by During Mattel’s annual Virtual Investor Presentation this past Wednesday, Ynon Kreiz, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Mattel indicated that in addition to the “Barbie” movie coming out July 21, 2023 from Warner Bros, Mattel films had a robust development slate of a total of 14 live-action motion pictures.
Those in development are:
- American Girl
- Matchbox
- Major Matt Mason
- Barney
- View Master
- Uno
- Christmas Balloon
- Hot Wheels
- Wishbone
- Rock’em Sock’em Robots
- Thomas & Friends
- Masters of the Universe
- Polly Pocket
- Magic 8 Ball
While a few of the above films in development were excitingly highlighted by industry professionals like J.J. Abrams discussing “Hot Wheels” and Lena Dunham discussing “Polly Pocket”, further filming updates about our favorite brand’s movie were noticeably absent, especially when considering the “Masters of the Universe” movie was highlighted in last year’s Virtual Investor Presentation, slated to begin production the Summer of 2022 and featuring its directing duo the Nee Brothers in a brief clip.
Now originally, the news broke about “Masters of the Universe” by Mattel themselves in January of 2022, where they indicated production was supposed to start that Summer of 2022, per their official press release:
“Mattel, Inc. (NASDAQ: MAT) and Netflix announced today they are developing Masters of the Universe, Mattel’s iconic franchise from the 1980s, into a live-action motion picture which is expected to begin production in summer 2022. “
Mattel’s Press Release can be found HERE.
Then, in March of 2022, concerning whispers began circulating that the production offices shut down due to script problems. Not knowing what was going on, we tweeted Netflix and Mattel to please clarify, but received no official response.
Now in May of 2022, during a promotional tour for their new movie “The Lost City”, the Nee Brothers were asked by Screen Rant if they were still on that timetable of filming “Masters of the Universe” in the Summer 2022. That was the moment when fans officially learned it was no longer the case. Here is how Adam Nee responded:
“It’s coming along great, it’ll be next year. Coming right off of Lost City was too tight, it’s such a huge beast of a movie that it needs real prep time. So we’re working on it now and working towards it starting next spring (2023).”
Adam Nee on the Masters of the Universe film
Fast forward to October of 2022, in an interview with Extra about his new film “Rosaline” , He-Man actor Kyle Allen was asked about the status of “Masters of the Universe”. In his response, among other things, Kyle confirmed that they would start filming April 2023 and they had to get the story in perfect order… which seemingly drew a line to the script issues we heard rumbled about before.
“We’re going to start filming in April (2023), so it’s just been a matter of waiting, and preparing, getting all the story and everything in perfect order and yeah I’m looking forward to it.”
-Kyle Allen on the Masters of the Universe film
Now looking at this today, hearing roughly five months ago that filming will begin this April indeed sounds terrific. But… the possible concern remains that, if filming is happening next month, why wasn’t this also detailed just days ago in Mattel’s latest Investors meeting, when they were discussing their film slate developments? Certainly cameras rolling next month would be terrific news to share with investors.
Looking back, delays have been synonymous with new Masters of the Universe movies, this latest incarnation being no exception. Remember The Nee Brothers first signed on to direct this MOTU film back in 2018 and the movie’s development has suffered through a gamut of writer changes, studio changes (from Sony to Netflix), and even a He-Man casting change from actor Noah Centineo to Kyle Allen.
Back in 2018, Sony even set a release date of December 18, 2019. Now five years later, it’s hard to remain confident that this will finally be the year when cameras start rolling. But at least Mattel is saying it’s still in development.
So will this new Masters of the Universe movie ever come to fruition? All we can do is hope, wait and see.
We’ll see you next time.
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At least it isn’t outright cancelled.
A sad state of affairs.
Great work on the article! It was very detailed and thorough. I think (Ideally) the next big thing to shoot for is to get a interview with Rob David. This way there is a executive voice on the business side explaining the situations that have transpired.
I agree bro. I thought the Noah = He-Man was an entirely different failed movie. I didn’t know that was the Nee Bros too. Great article!
Thank you both! Very much! 🙂