Like most dudes born in the early ‘80s, I really love He-Man; in fact, I love him so much that my home office is a shrine to the Masters of the Universe, and I’m counting down the days until I can play the recently announced retro brawler (He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: The Dragon Pearl of Destruction). Accordingly, I am cautiously optimistic about the upcoming He-Man movie, but some recent casting news has me worried. Comedian Kristen Wiig has been cast to play Roboto, and you don’t have to be the Sorceress to know this is going to anger huge chunks of the He-Man fandom.
In the original action figure comic, the 2002 reboot, and the two Netflix Filmation sequel shows, Roboto is an artificial creature built by Man-At-Arms. Historically, the character has been voiced entirely by men, starting with Alan Oppenheimer (who also voiced Skeletor) in the character’s one episode from the 1983 cartoon show. He was later voiced by Michael Donovan in the 2002 reboot show and voiced by Justin Long in Kevin Smith’s 2021 series Masters of the Universe: Revelation.
Roboto in the 1983 Masters of the Universe cartoon
On paper, it doesn’t really matter who voices Roboto because the artificial character has no real gender. But because men have always voiced the character, Kristen Wiig playing the character in the upcoming live-action film will disrupt many older fans of the franchise. That’s because, to put it mildly, those fans are men, and most men (according to recent polling) have more conservative views and often generally don’t like changes to pre-established lore.
For example, when Revelation came out, far too many fans in various online forums were annoyed by what they saw as a bait-and-switch: He-Man died in episode one and came back to life in episode five. Netflix only released five episodes at first, so for about four months, female sidekick Teela was the main character. Some fans were annoyed by this, seeing her increased prominence and the addition of Teela’s own female sidekick (Andra, a race-swapped version of a forgotten ‘80s comic character) as indications that Smith had made the traditionally male-dominated world of He-Man too woke.
Actress Kristen Wiig
Personally, I had no problem with these aspects of Revelation because Teela (voiced by Buffy legend Sarah Michelle Gellar) did a great job and, thanks to flashbacks, there were still plenty of He-Man appearances even after he died. However, my opinion doesn’t change that these decisions spawned a legion of angry YouTube videos that threatened to overshadow what ultimately turned out to be a great cartoon. Now, the live-action movie, which has Kristen Wiig voice a male-presenting, traditionally male-voiced character, threatens to reignite all these old woke/anti-woke debates yet again.
Wiig may still voice Roboto as a male; in animation, nobody usually blinks an eye when women voice popular male characters, like Nancy Cartwright voicing Bart Simpson or Pamela Adlon voicing Bobby Hill. But even if that happens, Kristen Wiig was presumably cast because of her skills as a veteran comedian, and that means Roboto–traditionally a very serious character–may suddenly become the movie’s comic relief.
Roboto in Masters of the Universe: Revelation
That’s a role traditionally filled by Orko, the floating imp with wonky magical powers. Considering Orko hasn’t been announced for the movie, the idea that the film may completely change one character to replace a more popular character’s role is likely to further ruffle fan feathers.
This is one of those cases where I’d love to be wrong: I want this He-Man movie to succeed and give this franchise the mainstream revival it deserves. But casting Kristen Wiig (an actor whom I love, by the way) to play a genderbent version of an iconic character intended to replace another, much more popular character is a recipe for disaster. If the movie bombs, this casting choice might do to He-Man what even Skeletor couldn’t do: destroy him for good.
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