'It was hard making that selection': Masters of the Universe director Travis Knight explains why some popular He-Man characters were left out of the new sci-fi fantasy movie

Date:
Wed, 03 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000

Masters of the Universe's filmmaker has opened up on the difficult decision
to leave some famous faces out of the new Amazon movie: The filmmaker behind this year's Masters of the Universe movie has forewarned fans that some of the franchise's most popular characters won't appear as part of its primary cast.

Speaking exclusively to TechRadar, Travis Knight admitted he and the rest of the film's chief creative team had some tough choices to make over who to include in the new Amazon film. In the end, any fan favorites who didn't make the cut were left out because, in Knight's own words, they "wouldn't work within the story we're telling".

To be fair to Knight and company, there's a whole host of classic He-Man characters who are part of the proceedings. That said, there are notable absentees from its ensemble, including but not limited to Orko,
Man-E-Faces, and Merman. Understandably,
there's no way that one of 2026's new movies could involve every famous face from the Mattel-created multimedia property. Nonetheless, some fans are sure to have been left disappointed when they realized that their favorite character wasn't part of the cast especially when B-tier individuals like Ram-Man, Fisto, and Mechaneck made the cut. As a self-confessed Masters of
the Universe fan, Knight is well aware of the high regard that some
characters are held in. But, as he told me, the film's creators had to draw a line in the sand somewhere to ensure its cast wasn't overstuffed, nor was its plot hindered by an immeasurable amount of character cameos. "Movies are a time-based art," Knight said. "You only have so much time to tell the story that you want to tell and, even though it's called Masters of the Universe , it's fundamentally Adam's movie and story. So, there are definitely things that are outside the bounds of what you could tell in a two-and-a-half hour movie you've got to be disciplined about that."

"There were certainly things that I wanted to put in the movie, but they wouldn't fit," he continued. "It would be a distraction and wouldn't work within the story that we're telling."

"It's such a big world and universe, and there are so many characters that I love, so it was hard making that selection," Knight added. "But, I do think that it honors so many different forms [of the franchise]. We have characters from the comic strips and the 1987 Dolph Lundgren live-action movie, so it really was a way for us to pay tribute to all the incredible work that's gone into this franchise over the last 40 years."

Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/streaming/entertainment/it-was-hard-making-that-sele ction-masters-of-the-universe-director-travis-knight-explains-why-some-popular -he-man-character-were-left-out-of-the-new-sci-fi-fantasy-movie

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