This review arises from the symposium held in honour of Prof Jenny Morgan at UCL in 2024 and the authors would like to acknowledge the outstanding contribution that Prof Morgan has made to the field of translational muscle cell biology. Prof Morgan published a review article in 2010 entitled: Are human and mice satellite cells really the same? In which the authors highlighted differences between species which are still pertinent to skeletal muscle cell culture studies today. To our knowledge there are no comprehensive reviews which outline the considerable work that has been undertaken using human primary skeletal muscle origin cells as the main model system. This review highlights the multitude of muscle biology that has been investigated using human primary cells, as well as discussing the advantages and disadvantages over other cell models. We also discuss future directions for primary cell culture models utilising the latest technologies in cell type specificity and culture systems.