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He-Man And The Masters of the Universe Trailer Gives Adam Pronouns And The Power

By Jennifer Asencio
| Published

As a kid in the 1980s, my weekday afternoons after school were filled with the all-important consumption of a trilogy of fantasy cartoons that dominated kids’ culture back then. The trilogy, which included She-Ra, Princess of Power and Thundercats, started with the phenomenon that was He-Man & The Masters of the Universe.

In yet another bid to revive 80s nostalgia, the first trailer for a Amazon’s new Masters of the Universe has been released.

The Story Told By Amazon’s First He-Man Trailer

The movie trailer begins with a voiceover explaining that the fantastical elements of the world of Eternia are real, while CGI shows its structures, spaceships, and magic. The voiceover is from Adam, who is shown as a youngster in this CGI universe, then as a young adult in a perfectly drab, normal Earthling bedroom. He was sent away, according to the trailer, by his mother, to a place where he wouldn’t be found.

Naturally, that place is Earth, where we are treated to a montage of dreary things, like Adam’s office job (complete with a nameplate bearing pronouns) and the disapproval of a co-worker, who seems to be his boss, over his “obsession with nerd stuff.”

Adam is apparently tracking down the Power Sword, which he finds in a hobby shop.

It draws Teela in a spaceship to come get him and bring him home to save the planet.

We are then treated to a spectacle of action scenes and urgent explanations from the queen about why she sent Adam away. Villains Skeletor and Evil-Lyn are shown, too, lurking as menacingly as ever. We’re even shown the famous transformation and a few shots of He-Man himself, proving that this origin story is not just Surf Dracula, and we’ll see plenty of the superhero in the movie.

Wait, We’re Doing The Real World Thing Again?

The first, most glaringly noticeable thing about Adam in the trailer is that he’s not overly muscle-bound, even though Prince Adam is. In the glimpse of He-Man we get at the end of the trailer, he’s a little wiry, but nothing like the Mattel toy that the cartoon was designed around. 

Rather than being the spoiled, lazy prince that creeps Teela out as he was on the show, this Adam is a Chosen One who eagerly awaits his Big Destiny.

Adam after his transformation.

With a world as rich as Eternia obviously is, I have always wondered about the obsession filmmakers have with shoehorning “our world” into the mix. The Dolph Lungren version of Masters of the Universe in 1987 also did this. When we sat down to watch the cartoon, we wanted to be taken away from the real world. It was a disappointment that the Dolph Lundgren movie did it, and it’s disappointing that they’re doing it again.

Special Effects That Deliver

Some of the CGI is overwhelming and looks cartoony, but I’m not going to lie: some of it looks really cool. The trailer shows us fantastic vistas and futuristic cities, ancient castles and feats of magic. Unlike a lot of CGI that looks like that animated sequence in Mary Poppins, the effects in Masters of the Universe look like they’re part of the world.

Alison Brie as Evil-Lyn

The trailer does a great job of obscuring the better-known names in the cast, with only Idris Elba showing up as Man-At-Arms. Also hiding behind newcomers Nicholas Galitzine as Adam and Camila Mendez as Teela are Morena Baccarin as the Sorceress of Greyskull, Alison Brie as Evil-Lyn, and Jared Leto as Skeletor.

Jared Leto as Skeletor

Speaking of Skeletor, his makeup is also really cool, much better than when Frank Langella played him in 1987. Instead of a bumbling cartoon villain, he looks like the frightening tyrant he is supposed to be.

Battle Cat participates in the circle of life.

The same, unfortunately, cannot be said for Battle Cat, who looks like a reject from Jon Favreau’s “live action” take on The Lion King.

He-Man Has He/Him Pronouns, Is It A Joke Or Activism?

I cannot let Adam’s nameplate at work go without further mention. I don’t know if the point of his clearly displayed “He/Him” pronouns was tongue-in-cheek. It’s either yet another sign of activism injected into storytelling, or Masters of the Universe is lampooning it.

The movie’s hero is called “He-Man,” after all. He-Man was who all the boys wanted to grow up to be, an icon of masculine heroism and might makes right, which is why the inclusion of his pronouns stuck out to me so strongly.

However, Masters of the Universe might just be poking a bit of fun at pronouns and the banality of corporate life by including them on Adam’s desk. He-Man makes a great counter to the “modern hero” because he is unapologetically all the good things about masculinity. If Hollywood is ready to make jokes about its activism, maybe it’s a sign that movies will return to being about story rather than “the message.”

However, the trailer doesn’t really hint at any messaging, preferring to dazzle audiences with special effects and fight scenes. Other than the warping of Prince Adam’s backstory and some of its graphics, there’s nothing bad to say about what we have been shown so far. Therefore, there’s hope that Masters of the Universe won’t be yet another franchise ruined by modern Hollywood.

How He-Man Started

In its original form, He-Man was about Prince Adam of Eternia and his secret, superhero-like identity as He-Man, a muscle-bound, shirtless barbarian figure who wielded a magic sword. He-Man defended Eternia with the help of his friends, Battle Cat, Man-At-Arms, Teela, and the Sorceress of Castle Greyskull, from the evil machinations of the terrifying skull-faced Skeletor and his supervillain minions.

The show was interesting because it combined all the best stuff about fantasy and science fiction of the era: magic swords, sorceresses and evil wizards, ray guns, spaceships, and alien planets. He-Man, as a character, was a classical male fantasy hero, full of muscles and prophecy. His backstory was that he was the spoiled son of the king and queen of the planet that was granted the magical Power Sword to defend it and the universe from Skeletor’s evil magic, turning him into a better man.

The movie Masters of the Universe is being released in theaters on June 5, 2026.


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This $10 upgrade transforms your PC — but it’s only on sale until midnight

TL;DR: Upgrade a PC affordably with this Microsoft Windows 11 Pro license, on sale for just $9.97 (reg. $199) through tonight at midnight.


Want to get the feeling of a new computer without having to shell out all the money for one? A new operating system gives your device a whole new feel, and if you’ve got a PC lying around, it could probably use this Microsoft Windows 11 Pro upgrade. If you act fast, you can get it for only $9.97 through tonight at 11:59 p.m. PT.

Windows 11 Pro breathes new life into an old computer, extending its lifespan for less than the cost of your lunch. Unlike older operating systems, this one was made with the modern professional in mind.

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Rest easy knowing Windows 11 Pro is filled with features that can improve your workflow — from an easy-to-use interface that enhances usability to snap layouts, seamless redocking, a more powerful search experience, and improved voice typing.

Take advantage of unique professional tools like Azure AD, Hyper-V, Windows Sandbox, and BitLocker device encryption. Then take a break and check out the impressive gaming experience offered by DirectX 12 Ultimate graphics.

Windows 11 Pro includes Copilot, Microsoft’s very own AI-powered assistant, which can assist you with a wide range of tasks. Get some help kickstarting your writing process, summarizing web pages, changing your settings, or even opening your apps.

You can also enjoy improved cybersecurity with Windows 11 Pro, as it adds biometric logins, encrypted authentication, and enhanced antivirus protection.

Get your PC a Microsoft Windows 11 Pro license for only $9.97 tonight through midnight.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

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3 AdultFriendFinder red flags — how to avoid scams on AFF

Depending on who you ask, AdultFriendFinder is either the Wild West of hookup sites, an “anything goes” paradise for adult fun, or a total scam replete with bots, fake profiles, and inactive accounts. 

After months of personal testing, I can confidently say which AFF you experience ultimately boils down to how you use the site. If you approach it naively, without a strategy, you’re probably going to have some frustrating experiences. On the other hand, if you exercise a modicum of caution and common sense, you’ll discover a huge, fun, and kink-friendly community.

Here are three red flags to look out for as you use AFF, to help you spot potential scammers and separate the authentic users from the fake profiles.

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Unverified accounts

AdultFriendFinder already offers a fantastic first step in combatting fake profiles that they call ConfirmID. Once you’ve created an account, you can, at any time, upload a clear scan of a government-issued ID card and then, using a webcam, undergo a quick face verification scan to confirm that you are indeed the person identified in the government document. 

This step strikes the perfect balance between not being onerous enough to annoy the average user but still requiring enough effort to deter scammers, who notoriously go after the low-hanging fruit. 

Once you’ve completed the ConfirmID sequence, you’ll be rewarded with a verification badge on your profile, and we strongly recommend that you limit your one-on-one interactions on the site to other verified users. 

Perfect profile photos

Alright, admittedly this one requires some personal judgment, as everyone should strive to upload good, high-quality photos of themselves to dating websites. But if every photo looks like it belongs in a magazine, or if the person in the photo looks a little too good to be true, you should exercise caution.

In the age of generative AI and filters, it’s trivially easy to create a fake photo or series of photos, so you should also be on the lookout for what isn’t in the photos. Are there recognizable local landmarks (clubs, restaurants, well-known parks, or street corners) in the photos, or are they all equally generic?

Over-eager chatters

Ever since chat bots became a thing, dating sites have become plagued with them, and as AI improves more and more, it’s not always easy to know, right away, if the “person” you’re talking to is really human. One dead giveaway, though, is how much they chat and how quickly they reply. 

Real people go off on tangents, employ non sequiturs, and sometimes stumble with awkward questions or comments. Chat bots, on the other hand, are typically always chipper and extremely fast-talking, so much so that a paragraph-long answer can come back to you in seconds. 

They also almost always have an agenda, too, whether that’s directing you to click on a link (“Follow my Instagram profile”) or getting you to divulge some potentially compromising bit of personal information about yourself.

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SNL opens with another Pete Hegseth press conference

Saturday Night Live returned from a brief hiatus Saturday with a cold open depicting a joint press conference between Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and FBI Director Kash Patel, with “Master of None” creator Aziz Ansari playing the latter.

Colin Jost’s Hegseth hit the familiar beats at the podium — performative machismo, military bravado, and repeated jabs at the secretary’s well-documented drinking habits. This time, Hegseth arrived at the mic hauling an oversized pitcher of scotch, which he assured the room was his one for the day. He then fielded questions from the press about the administration’s handling of U.S. strikes on Iran, dismissing each reporter with the particular brand of smug confidence that has become central to Jost’s portrayal of the character.

Ansari’s Patel proved to be the sketch’s standout, arriving to defend his tenure at the FBI and proceeding to do so poorly. The bit’s centerpiece involved Patel simultaneously denying and admitting that he had locked himself out of his work email for 36 hours after forgetting he had changed his password to “kashmeoutside69.”

Funnily enough, Patel was reportedly locked out of his FBI email in real life and believed, at least momentarily, that he was being fired. As the sketch demonstrated, the distance between SNL’s Cold Open and the actual news cycle has rarely felt smaller.

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