Ten days out from the June 5 theatrical release, Nicholas Galitzine has named three superhero touchstones he leaned on while building his version of Prince Adam and He-Man, and one of them came with face time.
Speaking to ComicBook.com on the press tour, the 31-year-old actor said his stint opposite Hugh Jackman on The Sheep Detectives, filmed in the window before Masters of the Universe began principal photography, gave him a working playbook for headlining a character “who has this kind of this power imbued within them.” The comedy in Wolverine, Galitzine noted, is drier than what Travis Knight is going for in Eternia, but the framework translated. He described picking Jackman’s brain on set as a chance to map how a long-running screen lead actually carries a high-power role across scenes.
Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. The comedy is drier than Eternia, but Galitzine says the playbook for carrying a high-power character across films is what he took away from his time on set with Jackman. Source: 20th Century Studios and Marvel Studios via Collider.
Beyond Jackman, Galitzine credited two Marvel reference points he watched as a viewer. The first Guardians of the Galaxy, he said, was “formative” for him in terms of how a film can hold hard action and comedy together in the same frame, a balance Knight has talked about wanting for MOTU. And he singled out Chris Hemsworth’s arc as Thor across the MCU, noting how the character “almost more Shakespearean when it first started” before loosening into the lighter register that Taika Waititi’s Ragnarok crystallized. The interviewer noted that Ragnarok itself has been compared to a He-Man movie in tone, and Galitzine did not push back.
Chris Pratt as Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). Galitzine cites the first GotG as “formative” for how hard action and comedy can share a frame, the same balance Travis Knight has talked about chasing for MOTU. Source: Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Studios via Collider.
Chris Hemsworth as Thor in Thor: Ragnarok (2017). The Ragnarok tonal shift, from Shakespearean to looser and funnier, is the arc Galitzine pointed to when describing where He-Man can sit. The interviewer noted Ragnarok itself has been compared to a He-Man movie in tone. Source: Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Studios via Just Jared.
The note about Ragnarok lands a few days after director Travis Knight told The Hollywood Reporter at the May 18 Hollywood premiere that he cast Galitzine in part because of qualities, vulnerability, charisma, charm, and comic timing, that exist independent of the physical transformation. Knight has consistently framed He-Man as a role that needs an actor first and a body second.
Masters of the Universe opens in U.S. theaters June 5 from Amazon MGM Studios, with Sony Pictures International Releasing handling the international rollout.
Sources
- Masters of the Universe Lead Reveals How Hugh Jackman Helped With He-Man (SuperHeroHype via Yahoo Entertainment, May 25 2026)
- Masters of the Universe Lead Reveals How Hugh Jackman Helped With He-Man (SuperHeroHype, May 25 2026)
- Masters of the Universe Lead Reveals How Hugh Jackman Helped With He-Man (ComingSoon, May 25 2026)
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