Travis Knight Explains Why MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE Won’t Follow a Strict Continuity
Fans hoping that Masters of the Universe will neatly connect every corner of He-Man lore may want to adjust their expectations. Director Travis Knight has opened up about how he approached the mythology of the franchise, and it sounds like continuity wasn't at the top of his priority list.
With more than 40 years of comics, cartoons, toys, and live-action adaptations to pull from, Knight says trying to create a perfectly unified canon simply wasn't realistic. Instead, he focused on capturing what made the property special in the first place.
Speaking with GamesRadar+, Knight explained: “It’s certainly something I thought about. But 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.”
It's a practical approach, especially for a franchise that has gone through multiple reinventions across different media. Rather than trying to force every version of He-Man into a single timeline, Knight chose to focus on the elements that originally sparked audiences' imaginations.
According to the filmmaker, the movie's biggest influences come from the earliest days of the brand, which makes sense. “It was always going back to the toys, the little mini-comics, and the Filmation cartoon from the ’80s. That was really what we used as our foundation.
“We make choices based on where we want these characters to go, but that really was the baseline. We drew from other sources, some aspects of the ’87 live-action movie. There were some obscure newspaper comic strips that we pulled from. But the foundational element was the original ’82, ’83 era.”
That should be welcome news for longtime fans who grew up with the original toy line and animated series. While the film will borrow ideas from various corners of the franchise, it sounds like the creative team is building everything around the classic version of Eternia and its characters.
Knight also reflected on how the mythology has evolved over the decades and what mattered most to him while developing the film.
“For me it was always about: hold on to what made it pure and interesting to begin with, which was where it started.”
That philosophy feels very much in line with Knight's previous work, where honoring the spirit of beloved properties has often taken precedence over obsessing over continuity details.
The upcoming fantasy adventure stars Nicholas Galitzine as Prince Adam, alongside an impressive cast that includes Camila Mendes, Jared Leto, Alison Brie, James Purefoy, Morena Baccarin, Idris Elba, and Kristen Wiig.
Whether you're a lifelong He-Man fan or someone discovering the world of Eternia for the first time, it sounds like Masters of the Universe is aiming to recapture the magic that launched the franchise rather than getting tangled in decades of conflicting lore.
We'll find out how that vision comes together when Masters of the Universe arrives in theaters on June 5, 2026.