Idris Elba may have found his next big franchise role.
The Luther star is in final negotiations to play Duncan, also known as Man-at-Arms, in the forthcoming live-action Masters of the Universe movie, Entertainment Weekly has learned. The project, based on the hit cartoon series, will also star Nicholas Galitzine as the story’s lead hero, He-Man; Camila Mendes as Teela; and Alison Brie as Evil-Lyn.
Frazer Harrison/Getty; Masters of the Universe
The mustachioed Duncan/Man-at-Arms has typically been depicted as a mentor to He-Man’s royal alter ego, Prince Adam. The character crafts weapons and raises Teela as his daughter after her mother, the Sorceress, gives her up to focus on defending Castle Grayskull.
Alan Oppenheimer voiced Duncan on the original 1980s cartoon, and actors Garry Chalk, Liam Cunningham, and Antony Del Rio have played him in other animated projects. Jon Cypher portrayed the character in the 1987 live-action movie Masters of the Universe, which also starred Dolph Lundgren and a pre-Friends Courteney Cox.
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Directed by Travis Knight (Kubo and the Two Strings, Bumblebee), the new Masters of the Universe would add yet another major franchise to Elba’s filmography, which already includes almost every major movie series of the 21st century.
Over the past 15 years, Elba has appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (as Heimdall in the Thor movies), the DC Extended Universe (as Bloodsport in The Suicide Squad), The Fast and the Furious (as the villainous Brixton in Hobbs & Shaw), Star Trek (as the antagonist Krall in Star Trek Beyond), Alien (as Janek in Prometheus), Sonic the Hedgehog (as Knuckles the Echidna starting in Sonic the Hedgehog 2), and Extraction (as Alcott in Extraction 2).
He is also one of the only actors in history to lend his voice to a Pixar movie (Finding Dory), a Walt Disney Animation Studios film (Zootopia), and a live-action remake of a Disney cartoon (The Jungle Book) — and he did all three in the same year. That’s not to mention his parts in movies that have spawned sequels like Pacific Rim, his performances in adaptations of well-known works like Cats and Stephen King‘s The Dark Tower, or his earlier franchise roles in movies like Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, 28 Weeks Later, and DC’s The Losers.
Elba will next appear on the big screen as Knuckles in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which hits theaters Dec. 20. He’ll also soon star in the action-comedy Heads of State (alongside his Suicide Squad costar John Cena) and the survival thriller Above the Below (which he co-directed with Martin Owen).
Masters of the Universe is currently set to land in theaters on June 5, 2026.
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