Netflix has the full Power of Greyskull lately as they’ve partnered with Mattel to put several He-Man and the Masters of the Universe shows into production. First came the critically praised retake on She-Ra, then Kevin Smith’s reimagined take, then a proper He-Man reboot for kids…it was all supposed to be topped with a live-action He-Man movie on the streamer, until today.
Netflix has pulled out of the deal to produce that live-action movie, which would have starred Kyle Allen (American Horror Story, The Path) as Prince Adam and his much more muscular counterpart (seriously, either some CGI was in the works or based on photos, Allen would really have to bulk up. I guess he doesn’t have to worry about that now).
It came down to a matter of money. Gone are the days when Netflix could willingly throw away billions on anything and everything. The He-Man feature had a $200 million price tag. Netflix wanted that budget reduced to $150 million. Mattel said it couldn’t be done, so Netflix has now passed. Variety notes that at this point, $30 million has already been spent in pre-production.
So that being said, it doesn’t mean Mattel can’t look for someone else to partner with to make the movie. In fact they probably will. The hype over Barbie has the toy maker believing ANY toy in their stable could be turned into a movie just as anticipated, and they’re considering a ridiculous 45 different toys for possible features. Execs will never stop being naive and stupid.
To date, the only live-action He-Man movie that exists was made on the cheap, starred a pre-Friends Courteney Cox, and landed with a thud at the 1987 box office.
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