“Beefcakes are back,” declared Bustle in January. “Muscles, mustaches and mullets are all now firmly in vogue.” As a matter of fact, muscle-bound heroes have never left our screens. Back in 2024, Playgirl took notice of Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s six pack in Kraven; in 2025 of David Corenswet’s trunks ( Superman.) It’s now Nicholas Galitzine’s turn and that of yet another franchise: Masters of the Universe.
-
- ‘Masters of the Universe’ • Amazon MGM Studios.
-
- ‘Masters of the Universe’ • The Cannon Group.
“As masculinity continues to evolve,” writes Men’s Health magazine, “the Masters of the Universe star knows there’s more to real heroics than just ripped, shredded abs: ‘The muscles don’t maketh the man, really.’” Who’s Men’s Health kidding, when its editorial is in fact subtitled “How he got huge for He-Man?” The story here is that he packed on muscle; the story is Galitzine’s new He-Man physique —his sex appeal and his blonde hair blowout. Does he command as strong a presence as Dolph Lundgren in the 1987 cult movie? Are we as obsessed with Nicholas, half-naked in a gladiator skirt?
-
- Dolph Lundgren in Playgirl 1986.
-
- Photo: Sandro Baebler for Mens Health.
Sure, Travis Knight’s film, is “loaded with jokes about its own out-of-time uncoolness,” as Variety points out. And Galitzine himself counterbalances “his jockish masculinity with hapless doofus energy.” The “jockish masculinity” and the charisma and the sexiness that Galitzine is comfortable lending to Masters, as he was in Mary and George (remember those sex scenes?) and Red, White and Royal Blue.
What say you? Dolph-1987 or Nicholas-2026?
