Nicholas Galitzine

Faced with the sword, harness and furry shorts in Masters of the Universe (2026), Nicholas Galitzine looks as puzzled as we feel. His Adam is a prince who would rather not have the job, and the uncertainty gives him something to play beyond looking the part. We laughed at his bafflement over the costume; he allows himself to look as unconvinced by it as anyone watching. When he straightens and lowers his voice, the hero is there. Travis Knight’s film then keeps puncturing that authority with jokes about his appearance, long after the first joke has done its work.

The run of romantic leads brought wider recognition: Purple Hearts (2022) was the breakthrough, followed by Prince Henry in Red, White & Royal Blue (2023). That sequence explains the heartthrob label, though the label leaves out the work of making attraction seem mutual. In The Idea of You (2024), his chemistry with Anne Hathaway makes the romance persuasive. We would not hurry him out of romance merely to prove he can do something else.

The more interesting departure is Bottoms (2023), with Galitzine as Jeff, the quarterback, in Emma Seligman’s high-school comedy. Here he is willing to play an exaggerated figure rather than protect the romantic lead’s dignity. Seligman’s film is built around Ayo Edebiri and Rachel Sennott’s double act, and Galitzine is useful precisely because he is prepared to look foolish. The plotting is loose, but the jokes work, and we would like more parts that make use of his comic timing.

His move into action involved extensive physical preparation, which makes the limited demands of Masters of the Universe on his acting more frustrating. Camila Mendes’s Teela does most of the competent work, pulling Adam out of trouble while he looks uncertain. There is only so much an actor can find in repeated bewilderment, however well he plays it, and the script gives him too few chances to try anything else. Choose Bottoms if loose plotting is an acceptable price for good jokes.