Masters of the Universe

Submission 30,276

About

Masters of the Universe (abbreviated as MOTU, and usually referred to simply as He-Man after the series main protagonist) is a Mattel-owned multimedia franchise that has spawned several comics, television series, toy lines, video games and a feature length theatrical film since its inception in the early 1980s. In memes, MOTU and He-Man are each frequently referenced due to their nostalgia and popularity across a wide array of formats.

History

Masters of the Universe^[2] started as a Mattel^[1] toy line with a concurrent comic miniseries^[3] that came along with each toy in the toyline. Several other comic series would release along with new toylines starting with DC Comics^[4] limited series^[5] in 1982. On September 5th, 1983, the Filmation^[6] cartoon series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe^[7] began syndication with the goal of boosting toy sales, which it accomplished. The series was notable for breaking many censorship restrictions that had been put in place during the 1970s.^[8]

The series lasted until November 21st, 1985. Shortly before the original series ended, a spin-off series, known as She-Ra: Princess of Power,^[9] began and ran until 1987. Due to the popularity of both series, a feature-length live-action film called Masters of the Universe^[10] was created and released on August 7th, 1987. The movie was panned by critics and is notorious for being the low point of the franchise (seen below).

In order to boost new interest in the franchise, Mattel ordered a new toy line, as well as a new television series named The New Adventures of He-Man^[11] that served as a sequel series to the original. Nearly a decade later, Mattel tried once again to reboot the franchise with the 2002 series, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe,^[12] which lasted for two seasons and ended in 2004. The reboot series is known by fans for helping to breathe new life into what would be considered an old and stale franchise. Several story elements introduced by the 2002 series would later be incorporated into the lore of both the Master of the Universe Classics^[13] toy line in 2010, and the DC Comics He-Man and the Masters of the Universe^[14] comic series that began in 2013 and is still ongoing.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

A spin-off series that was made before the ending of the He-Man series, She-Ra and the Princess of Power was marketed mostly as a female-centric show for the female-centric toy line to sell. Netflix rebooted the series in 2018. This series had some controversy surrounding it. On October 4th, 2018, the Masters of the Universe YouTube^[32] channel posted the trailer for She-Ra, gaining 3 million views in three years (shown below).

Masters of the Universe: Revelation

Another reboot made by Netflix. This series, which was spearheaded by Kevin Smith, was called out by many in July 2021 for apparently "bait-and-switching" the actual plot with what the trailers were showing would be the main focus. The official Netflix YouTube^[31] channel posted the trailer on June 10th, 2021, and received 7.5 million views in seven weeks (shown below).

Fandom

Masters of The Universe has a sizeable online following on sites such as Tumblr,^[15]^[16] Fanpop,^[17] Reddit,^[18]^[19] Pinterest^[20] and DeviantArt.^[21] Aside from these, there are numerous community fansites dedicated to chronicling Masters of the Universe information, such as He-Man.org,^[22] Wiki Grayskull^[23] and TV Tropes. The official Facebook^[24] page has over 800,000 likes, while DeviantArt^[25] has nearly 30,000 images dedicated to He-Man and over 350 stories on Fan Fiction.^[26]

He-Man Sings

He-Man Sings refers a 2005 animated video titled “Fabulous Secret Powers”^[27] in which He-Man's alter ego, Prince Adam, sings a rendition of the 1993 4 Non Blondes^[28] hit “What’s Up?”^[29] It has since been reuploaded to YouTube numerous times and can also be found remixed and mashed up into other videos across the web. It can also be found on Synchtube^[30] as a trolling technique.

He-Man Sees

He-Man Sees refers to an exploitable image from a Masters of the Universe coloring book. The image has subsequently been made into various mash-up images, as well as several YTMND videos.