‘Masters Of The Universe’ Director Travis Knight Says Jared Leto’s Villainous Skeletor Is Embodiment Of “Toxic Masculinity”

Mattel Films is coming off the billion-dollar hit with Greta Gerwig‘s “Barbie” and is hoping that their long-delayed “He-Man” reboot, “Masters of the Universe,” could court a nostalgic audience, and the project finally got completed with the help of director Travis Knight (“Bumblebee”) and Amazon MGM Studios (picking up the fantasy film after Netflix decided not to move forward with it).

Knight is talking up Jared Leto‘s Skeletor, the iconic villain of the reboot, while speaking with Empire Magazine, calling the fantastical baddie the embodiment of “toxic masculinity.”

“Skeletor was a really interesting villain,” Knight said of the original cartoon incarnation of the franchise baddie. “He looked cool. He was scary. He was funny. He was insecure. And then of course he had this distinctive voice…I wanted someone to craft their own version of that. 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 that I’m really happy with. Skeletor’s kind of the embodiment of toxic masculinity.”

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“I said, ‘F*** that s***. Skeletor has a skull face,’”Knight said when previous versions wanted to have Skeletor wearing a golden skull mask covering his face. “That’s just the way it is. It’s a living, talking, emoting skull, and that’s that.” Don’t mess with perfection.”

Originally a successful and expansive toyline from the 1980s that spawned a cartoon series and a live-action film starring Swedish action star Dolph Lundgren (who was still learning English at this point in his career) as He-Man in the infamous Cannon Films iteration. In recent years, Kevin Smith helped resurrect the cartoon series on Netflix, and the feature reboot had troubles getting made after moving from Warner Bros. to Sony Pictures to Netflix and finally to Amazon.

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Empire also shared some new official images (See below), which include the first good look at actress Alison Brie (“Together”) as Evil-Lyn, Skeletor’s female companion, and a better look at Idris Elba as Adam/He-Man’s cohort Man-At-Arms. “Masters of the Universe” heads to theaters on June 5, and the rest of the cast features Nicholas Galitzine, Camila Mendes, Morena Baccarin, Kristen Wiig, Charlotte Riley, and James Purefoy.