Masters of the Universe director Travis Knight says he always intended to make live-action Skeletor look the way he does in the He-Man cartoon – no ifs, ands, or buts.
“I said, ‘Fuck that shit. Skeletor has a skull face,'” Knight told Empire when asked about previous iterations of the supervillain’s look. “That’s just the way it is. It’s a living, talking, emoting skull, and that’s that.”
In the 1987 Masters of the Universe movie, Skeletor is quite simply Frank Langella wearing a skull mask and a hood to conceal his real-life human body. The Skeletor design in the 2026 movie, however, is a straight-up skeleton with piercing red eyes that looks to be a combination of practical FX and CGI. We’re a little disappointed that he’s not donning his purple cloak and armor combo from the original 1983 cartoon, but we’ll just have to deal.
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The film stars Nicholas Galitzine as Prince Adam aka He-Man, who is living a normal life on Earth when he’s called back to his home planet of Eternia to defeat the likes of Skeletor (Jared Leto). The cast includes Mendes as Teela, Johannes Haukur Johannesson as Fisto, Morena Baccarin as the Sorceress of Castle Grayskull, Alison Brie as Evil-Lyn, Kristen Wiig as Roboto, Idris Elba as Man-At-Arms, and Sasheer Zamata as Suzie. (No, there is no She-Ra in this one, and no, I will not stop mentioning how sad this makes me.)
Masters of the Universe is set to hit theaters on June 5. In the meantime, check out our guide to the most exciting upcoming movies heading our way.
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