Masters of the Universe director on how the film handles He‑Man continuity

Travis Knight, who fell in love with He‑Man at eight through the Filmation cartoon and the action figures, says he didn’t feel beholden to past versions when making the new film. Speaking at a press event in London, he called the franchise’s continuity “wildly internally inconsistent,” and said the filmmakers had to decide what to embrace and what to leave behind.

Knight says the production returned to the toys, the little mini‑comics and the early ’80s Filmation series as its foundation, while also drawing on the 1987 live‑action movie and some obscure newspaper strips. The new film renders He‑Man, Skeletor, Teela, Cringer, Man‑at‑Arms and the weirder characters like Fisto, Ram‑Man and Mekaneck as if they’d leapt from the cartoons.

In the story, Adam (Nicholas Galitzine) is stranded on Earth after Skeletor’s forces destroy Eternos; fifteen years later he returns to embrace the mantle of He‑Man and attempt to liberate Eternia, though he is not quite the hero legend expects.

United Kingdom, London

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