Bringing Masters of the Universe to the big screen has proven challenging for Hollywood for nearly four decades, but director Travis Knight believes the secret is embracing the franchise’s weirdness rather than running from it.
The filmmaker behind the upcoming live-action adaptation says the fantastical world of He-Man is unlike almost anything else in popular culture, which is exactly why it has endured.
“I do think it’s kind of tricky material,” Knight told IndieWire. “It’s weird. It’s almost deranged. It’s pure, uncut, Colombian-grade ’80s excess.”
Knight pointed to the franchise’s unique blend of fantasy and science fiction elements as both its greatest strength and its biggest challenge. “There are barbarians with battle axes and swords, robots with laser guns, spaceships, a warlock with a skull for a face,” he said. “None of that should work. Some things shouldn’t go together. And somehow, crazily, they do.”
The comments offer insight into why previous attempts to adapt the Mattel property have struggled, including the 1987 film starring Dolph Lundgren as He-Man. Despite becoming a cult favorite over the years, the movie failed to connect with audiences during its original theatrical run.
For Knight, the key difference is a genuine love of the source material.
The Bumblebee director explained that many adaptations stumble when filmmakers fail to understand what made the original property resonate with fans in the first place. “When I see adaptations fall down, it’s when the people involved don’t understand what was special about the thing they are adapting,” Knight said. “They don’t love the thing they are adapting.”
That wasn’t a problem for Knight, who grew up as a devoted fan of the franchise. “It was easy for me to understand what this could be because it was such a huge part of my childhood,” he said. “I loved it. I love these characters so much. And I knew what that inner eight-year-old would want to see on the big screen.”
Rather than attempting to modernize or reinvent the mythology, Knight says the production leaned fully into the franchise’s eccentric DNA. “To try to take this property and turn it into something it isn’t would have been a recipe for disaster,” he explained. “For me, it was just wrapping our arms around all this weirdness.”
The new film stars Nicholas Galitzine as Prince Adam/He-Man, alongside Camila Mendes and Jared Leto as Skeletor.
Knight also revealed that Lundgren makes a cameo appearance in the film as a character called Macho Man, creating what he describes as a symbolic passing of the torch between generations of cinematic He-Men.
The director said securing Lundgren’s involvement was a priority from the beginning. “He loved the character,” Knight said. “The idea that he could play a part in this symbolic passing of the torch from the previous cinematic He-Man to the new cinematic He-Man, he was totally down for that.”
Seeing the two actors together on set proved especially meaningful. “It was actually quite moving for me to see those two guys together,” Knight said.
Early box office numbers suggest a challenging road ahead for Masters of the Universe. The Amazon MGM fantasy adventure earned $4 million in Thursday previews, while the horror-comedy revival Scary Movie significantly outperformed expectations with $7.5 million.
Although Masters of the Universe has generally connected with fans and earned a respectable 71% critics score and 88% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, updated projections indicate the film could open to around $30 million domestically and may struggle to surpass $50 million worldwide in its debut frame.
Studio executives will likely be hoping that positive word-of-mouth helps the PG-13 adventure build momentum in the weeks ahead.
Masters of the Universe arrives in theaters today, June 5.
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