Master of the Universe’s Skeletor will embody toxic masculinity in new movie

There was a lot to process in the Masters of the Universe trailer, but perhaps one of the biggest takeaways from it all was how ridiculously fun it all looked. By the power of Grayskull (and even a bit of Dolph Lundgren), Nicolas Galitzine had the look down as both Prince Adam and his musclebound alter-ego, He-Man. One person who was only carefully applied to the preview, however, was Skeletor, the nemesis of Eternia’s champion. Jared Leto is taking on the role of the bony-faced bad guy that spent Saturday mornings cackling at every evil plan he hatched, and according to the new movie’s director, Travis Knight, he’s going to be doing all that and more.

“Skeletor was a really interesting villain,” Knight recently explained to Empire. “He looked cool. He was scary. He was funny. He was insecure. And then, of course, he had this distinctive voice.” Bringing the character to life in a new iteration meant taking a different approach to Skeletor. “I wanted someone to craft their own version of that,” Knight revealed. “Jared approached us because he loves Skeletor and has his own history with the character. He wanted to swing for the fences. And ultimately, we landed on something I’m really happy with. Skeletor’s kind of the embodiment of toxic masculinity.”

But while it might sound like they’ve got Skeletor down for this new movie, there were some creative choices that could’ve shown him in a very different form, namely, doing away with his skeletal features and hiding him behind a golden skull mask.

Knight was pretty direct to ensure that didn’t happen. “I said, ‘Fuck that shit. Skeletor has a skull face,’” See? Direct. “That’s just the way it is. It’s a living, talking, emoting skull, and that’s that.”

We’ll have to see how Skeletor and He-Man handle things when Masters of the Universe arrives in theaters on June 5. For every other film worth keeping an eye on, check our list of 2026 movies here.