Written by During Wednesday’s Press Question and Answer period at CinemaCon, “Masters of the Universe” Movie Director Travis Knight…
…provided more insight on his commitment to honor the classic 1983 Filmation Cartoon Series “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe“….
…and explained why he did not honor the iconic series in all cases (like He-Man’s furry loincloth.) Check it out:
Director Travis Knight on being faithful to the classic Filmation Cartoon “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” (1983):
“Generally, I was always telling the guys like whenever we were at some kind of a crossroads, just go back to the source. Even though we take liberties for some of that stuff, and we want to make things look modern and cinematic, we always went back to the Filmation cartoon.
So there are a lot of nods, the color palette, actually, when Adam transforms for the first time, we see the spirit of Grayskull right behind him. It’s kind of a blink and you’ll miss it moment, but it’s there. And like, I think that level of kind of devotion to the original source material is something you’ll find all throughout the whole movie.”
Director Travis Knight on the times they couldn’t be faithful to the cartoon like the Furry Loincloth:
“In some cases, we were pretty faithful to that stuff. In other cases, it didn’t kind of make sense for the overall design that we were bringing to the movie. You know, for instance, you can see with He-Man, there was a lot of debate going on in the art department, in the production design team, in the costume department, like, can we really have a guy with like, furry hot pants and furry boots? And we couldn’t do that,”
“We thought about it for a moment, but then we explored like, okay, what if we go somewhere else? And then there was like a leather trousers moment where he looked like Jim Morrison. And so ultimately, we landed on something that was evocative of the original He-Man costume, but also just brought it to a modern era. So he’s got like a gladiator skirt instead of the furry knickers. It’s still got the same silhouette, but it’s just got a different prism attached to it.”
Thanks the awesome comicbook.com for the quotes!
We’ll see you next time!
This is why people are saying “trust in Travis"
I agree.
Can’t believe we made it this far without the toxic masculinity. Teela, like Marlena, is one of the smartest, strongest, badass characters AND was raised by a great father. Mendes comments are nonsensical. They don’t mirror the character at all. It’s her given talking points and not the true strong, leader-like character. If she had actually researched Teela – well then her “message” should be different. I don’t want to (again, repeatedly) hear “The Message” – I want a movie! I don’t want another lecture. And before a few of you lose their minds, some of my favs – Ripley, Leia, Sara Connor, Lynda Carter, Scully, Buffy, Beatrix, Bristow, Trinity, Arya, Brienne…. Unreal. The series has never been toxic. Sadly, I’m out.
@hemanfan51 Bruh, the movie hasn’t even come out. But whatever, good Journey I guess.
They still could have him wear a furry loincloth and boots and not make it look stupid.
@samuel I totally agree. I utterly fail to see what this “modern" thing is that prevented it.
It’s like one of the most nonsensical things to be upset about and also one of those design decisions that if they left it alone nobody would bat an eye. Like Superman trunks. 😆
I just saw it that they looked at different designs for the character like Mondos interpretation and went with a mishmash.
Honoring the source huh? Is that what the drugs are telling him? Went back to the Filmation cartoon? Is that why half of the characters don’t look anything like the original cartoon?
If you’re “honoring the source" then please explain to me what the hell happened to my favorite character Spikor. And why does Teela look more like Scarlett from GI Joe? And WTF happened to Roboto? And why is Teela holding a rifle instead of a sword & shield or her cobra staff? Why does Tri-Klops look like a modern army soldier with a sniper rifle when he has always carried a sword? Not to mention Teela, Evil-Lyn & the Sorceress are completely covered up. Women walk around the beach in string bikinis all the time, the women in all the 80s fantasy movies were practically naked, but for the new “modern audience" the women can’t show the tiniest bit of skin in a swords & sorcery fantasy movie. They can’t even have their legs showing. You call that “honoring the source"?
When it comes to looks, Man-at-arms 2026 honors the source more than Man-at-arms 1987 and Teela 2026 honors the source more than Teela 1987.
Besides the obvious race swap, Man-At-Arms outfit = YES. Teela? Not at all. Neither Teela look anything like the original toy, comics or cartoon. 1987 Teela looked like a homeless bum & 2026 Teela looks like Scarlett from GI Joe, a soldier with a rifle, not a “Warrior Goddess".
I’m done with Hollywood. I’m no longer overlooking their stupidity or giving them the benefit of the doubt. It’s over! I have watched them fuck over franchise after franchise. Now I want everything to look right like Trap-Jaw & Skeletor. I’m not giving them an inch anymore. I’ve been putting up with this stupid nonsense since 2007 with the godawful Transformers movies. Enough is enough. Why constantly defend or make justifications for these hacks? When they fuck up, call them out on it. If you’re gonna do it, DO IT RIGHT! Or don’t bother at all. I wanted a Masters Of The Universe movie, not this half-hearted, kinda sorta resembles Masters Of the Universe thing. If they put the same amount of effort into every character like they did with Trap-Jaw, then this movie would be beyond awesome. But they didn’t.
@sci-fitsunami of you’re looking for something to jerk off to, get out of here and go on the hub! I swear people just b*tch about the smallest things and I’m tired of these pathetic horny middle-aged men who won’t stop acting like they’re still a teenager in the ’90s! If you don’t like it, don’t watch it. And don’t ruin it for the people who are excited by complaining because it’s not sexy enough for you.
The way Teela, Evil-Lyn & Sorceress should look in the 2026 movie if they actually honored the source material. Pretty soon the fans will be making better movies.
@sci-fitsunami you want AI slop made by jackasses like you? You wouldn’t know what a good movie is if it but you in the ass. You just want x-rated videos
@sci-fitsunami I’m not sure you understand what “honoring the source material" means. Its not a one to one copy. It means they are similar enough to be recognized as who or what they are. For a good example see Transformers G1 vs Transformers 2007 vs Bumblebee (film).
Wait who directed Bumblebee…?
Whatever!
SHILLS GONNA SHILL!
@sci-fitsunami Damn, deflecting criticism by pulling the shill card? You’ve invalidated your argument three times now
@sci-fitsunami Yes, you’re right. 😞 Me, a sixteen year old boy, is a shill. I can’t believe you’ve outed me.
I wish I was a shill, shills get paid, I’m poor.
@smitty-81 Same twin! I want to be a paid shill atp!
Wow all caps, exclamation point and bold text, you’ve completely changed my mind on this whole thing.
DAMN THIS MOVIE!
BURN IN HELL TRAVIS!
WE DEMAND ORKO!
@sci-fitsunami AI slop like that invalidates your argument even further than you clearly wanting to just say the W word
@thenate Wait, what’s the “W word"?
@kinggrayskull09 Woke
In certain angles, when you don’t see the white of the pants as much, Reel’s movie outfit actually does remind of the classic bathing suit. No she doesn’t have the spirals in the boobs, but the gold parts are reminiscent of her toy snake armor.
I do miss her snake staff, but then, she never has it in Filmation.
Some might point to Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman as proof you can do bare legs. But she’s also super tall… whenever we criticize, we forget that they might actually have tried various versions and for reasons we don’t know, maybe what some of us want really didn’t look as good in the screen tests. It is a different medium, it also depends on the actress, etc etc
I liked what @smitty-81 said about honoring– not all of us seem to have the same definition what “honoring” means. Pretty hard to find common ground then.
It is 2026, if you want to reach the general audience, you have to give it some modern twists.
We also might forget that creatives and creators need to have a bit of fun with it, if you want a good result. They are not just a hired hand. Creation isn’t just about doing the same stuff over and over, and doing exactly what the fans already know. It’s also about surprising the viewers.