Masters Of The Universe Tackles Inconsistent Character

The new Masters of the Universe film will surprise loyal fans.

Masters of the Universe is a 2026 live-action film inspired by the classic toy-line’s action figures. It centers on Prince Adam, also known as He-Man (Nicholas Galitzine), who was sent to Earth when he was young due to the war in Eternia. After he becomes an adult with an ordinary life, Adam discovers the legendary Power Sword and his true destiny. He returns to Eternia to confront Skeletor (Jared Leto) so he can fight for his world and its people.

The upcoming big screen adaptation of Masters of the Universe is taking a fresh approach to the iconic franchise and one of its most recognizable faces, He-Man. In an interview with GamesRadar, director Travis Knight explained that the new film won’t and never intended to strictly follow any origins of the character, who has been rewritten countless times across comics, movies, and more.

With so many different iterations of He-Man and the world of Eternia, the franchise has offered fans complicated and very contradictory mythology for the popular character. So, rather than attempting to follow a specific version of the story, Knight chose to focus on the elements that first made the property a success in the first place.

According to the director, the creative team drew inspiration from one of the earliest adaptations of Masters of the Universe, specifically the first comic books and the beloved 1980s animated series. However, he explained that while the movie does borrow ideas from those projects, it was more of a roadmap for building his own universe rather than a direct remake.

Anytime you’ve got a property like this, a world and a series of characters that have been around for over four decades, the continuity is going to be all over the place. And it is in this property. It’s wildly internally inconsistent. So, in the end, you have to decide what you embrace and what you leave behind.

His approach actually reveals a lot about the upcoming movie’s roster. Alongside the well-known figures such as He-Man, Skeletor, Teela (Camila Mendes), and Man-At-Arms (Idris Elba), the film includes several characters that have rarely appeared in major adaptations. Fisto (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson), Ram-Man (Jon Xue Zhang), and Mekaneck (James Wilkinson) will all appear in Knight’s Masters of the Universe, and, judging by the trailer and other promotional material, their costumes appear to be very similar to their action figure counterparts.

Masters of the Universe will premiere in theaters on June 5, 2026.