MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE Director Says Jared Leto’s Skeletor Needed the Perfect Mix of Menace and Theatrics
The upcoming Masters of the Universe movie has gone from a project fans cautiously watched from a distance to one that people are actually getting excited about.
Some of that turnaround has to do with the early reactions of the film and how Jared Leto plays Skeletor, and now director Travis Knight is opening up about the surprisingly complicated process of bringing Eternia’s iconic villain to life.
With the film set to hit theaters on June 5, Knight recently talked about why Skeletor turned out to be one of the trickiest characters to crack.
According to him, the villain worked so well in the original 1980s cartoon because he somehow balanced multiple personalities at once.
Knight explained: “I think most villains, at that time, they look cool, or they were scary, or they were funny, or they were intimidating [but] Skeletor was all of those things. And so it was a really interesting combination of flavors.”
That mix created a major challenge for the filmmakers. They had to decide whether Leto should lean into the classic animated performance by Alan Oppenheimer, complete with the famous nasal delivery from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, or head in a completely different direction.
Knight explained that simply recreating Oppenheimer’s voice was never the plan. In the original series, the exaggerated performance helped make a skull-faced villain less frightening for younger viewers. Trying to mimic that approach in a modern live-action fantasy movie didn’t feel right to them.
“We did not want it to be him doing an impression of Alan Oppenheimer,” Knight said. “And it was important for him to get the voice right. So there was a lot of exploration to figure out, ‘Okay, what does Skeletor sound like?’
“Ultimately, we arrived at this, which I love, because I think it has menace [and] theatricality, which is always a part of Skeletor.”
Skeletor should feel dangerous, dramatic, unhinged, and entertaining all at the same time. If they managed to land that balance, this could end up being one of the coolest live-action versions of the character we’ve ever seen.
Knight also revealed they spent a lot of time digging into Skeletor’s emotional makeup. Instead of portraying him as just another evil tyrant chasing power, the film leans into the idea that Skeletor desperately wants validation. He wants attention. He wants reactions. And when he doesn’t get them, it eats at him.
“[Skeletor] was always putting on a show, and then being disappointed when he didn’t get the response that he wanted,” Knight said. “Ultimately, he’s a very insecure man, and that became a part of his character.”
That’s actually an interesting angle for Skeletor because it keeps the theatrical side of the character intact while giving the villain a more grounded psychological edge.
It sounds like Leto and Knight weren’t interested in creating a one-note monster. They wanted someone theatrical enough to command the screen but unstable enough to make him dangerous.
Fans were skeptical early on, but the deeper people hear about the creative approach to these characters, the more interesting this movie sounds.
Now we just have to see if Skeletor can finally conquer Eternia on the big screen.