Considering how willing Hollywood is to adapt (and readapt) popular franchises from television, video games, or film, it's sort of surprising when a popular franchise has trouble getting rebooted. And yet, we still haven't seen a big screen He-Man adaptation since Dolph Lundgren played the role in Masters of the Universe in 1987. That was supposed to change after Noah Centineo was cast to play He-Man in a new film, and the actor even started to put the work in to get in He-Man shape. But it seems that was all for naught as Centineo has now reportedly left the project.
While no details have been given, Collider is reporting that a representative for Noah Centineo told them the To All the Boys I've Loved Before actor was no longer attached to the new Masters of the Universe movie. It's unclear why Centineo left the project, or how long he's actually been out of it. What is apparently clear is that the movie will need a new He-Man.
Masters of the Universe is one of those projects that seems to hit one road block after another. The movie has been through multiple directors over the last several years. Aaron and Adam Nee are still, as far as we know, the pair set to helm the project. The movie also had other behind the scenes questions that have never been clearly answered as at various times the expectation was that the movie would be theatrical, or possibly end up going to a streaming service like Netflix. The streaming giant already has a separate reboot series in development
Additionally, there was a little thing about a global pandemic that kept a lot of movies from getting in front of cameras. The physical work that Noah Centineo did to het into He-Man shape had to basically be put on hold and he would have either needed to keep it going all through the pandemic, or stop and then start again when production was ready to get underway. Neither option was probably all that enticing.
It's also simply possible that the delays in production resulted in Noah Centineo being unable to play the role of He-Man. He's set to play Atom Smasher in the upcoming DC movie Black Adam with Dwayne Johnson, and he's got other projects set to follow that. So it could simply be that he was forced to bow out of Masters of the Universe.
Since it's not 100% clear how long Noah Centineo has been out as He-Man, this could be a recent development or old news that simply hadn't been discovered yet, it's possible the search for a new He-Man is already underway. If Masters of the Universe is an active concern we could get a new casting announcement soon. Of course, if the reason Centineo left is that the movie just isn't moving forward, then this could be news that the whole thing has fallen apart.
