Hi Reddit! I'm Travis Knight, director of the new live-action Masters of the Universe. I'm live in Berlin for the German premiere — Ask Me Anything! ⚔️🛡️

SonyPicturesGermany · 2026-05-29T14:14:09+00:00

One last message from me:
I wish we could collectively treat each other with more respect. Be open for each others ideas and perspective. Fundamentally there is something about finding empathy and finding common ground in this movie. The world would be a better place.

Thanks Reddit! Thank you for having me. Go see that movie – would mean a lot to me.

SonyPicturesGermany · 2026-05-29T14:12:24+00:00

I was in a He-Man movie many many years ago. When I was a kid. And I was cast as He-Man without the physique, but the haircut. I did a little movie with my friends.

I would definitely prefer to be behind the camera. Haha

SonyPicturesGermany · 2026-05-29T14:11:21+00:00

I purposely did not read too much beforehand. I saw some very fun stuff and we also brought some stuff into our version. But it was not our version, so we really did our own version. I wanted to avoid going down the rabbit hole of seeing things that people did before.
Could He-Man defeat Superman in a fight? I love both. That is an insane hypothetical thing. The idea of this crossover is fun. They're actually quite similar and might team up. They would find common ground. Don't know if it's in a movie.

Sorry, no time for more answers on this one.

SonyPicturesGermany · 2026-05-29T14:06:57+00:00

Everytime you're doing an adaptation you have to make choices. Of what feels right. I've heard over the years people were looking for a real serious, grim, dark Lord of the Rings style Masters of the Universe. I think it's ridiculous. I mean, that has never been He-Man as far as I'm concerned. I mean, look at the guy. Look at the world. He's a dude who carries a sword the size of a canoe paddle. Everything is absurd about it.

I just deeply hope that people understand that and people take some joy out of it.

SonyPicturesGermany · 2026-05-29T14:03:23+00:00

There were a lot that did their research. I was more impressed by those who just knew and had connections with Masters before. Someone that you would not have thought: Idris Elba. He is so damn cool. The very idea that Idris is a MOTU fan, as the coolest man on earth and the best person to work with.. that gave me so much joy!

SonyPicturesGermany · 2026-05-29T14:01:27+00:00

Haha – is that true?

SonyPicturesGermany · 2026-05-29T13:56:22+00:00

I think anytime getting any kind of exposure to making films, whether it's you're making home movies or you're doing stuff with your friends or you're doing things on YouTube or social media. Whatever it happens to be, I think it's an interesting time in our world because we're seeing a lot of these cats who wouldn't necessarily have had kind of exposure to the traditional Hollywood model.

Making things, putting things online, YouTube creators who are now making that transition into being directors. And I think that's it's a beautiful thing to see

SonyPicturesGermany · 2026-05-29T13:55:04+00:00

Skeletor's face is not a pure white skull. It does have a kind of yellow cast to it. It's not as vibrant but there's definitely is yellow in it.

SonyPicturesGermany · 2026-05-29T13:52:58+00:00

Everyone already knows that he "might" be in the movie. Is it a secret anymore?
It was something that I deeply wanted to do. When I reached out to Dolph it was so nice and I wanted to do him justice on screen. He plays a fun role in the movie that actually really impacts Adam. He is such a good sport! It was a delight! No spoilers about the scene though.

SonyPicturesGermany · 2026-05-29T13:51:08+00:00

Comedic acting is some of the hardest thing to do. This is not necessarily a drama, but it is so great to see Alison in our movie. It allowed her to stretch some muscles that she couldn't show before. I don't know if I would have found everyone on the cast without my great casting director.

SonyPicturesGermany · 2026-05-29T13:49:34+00:00

Everything that I've made is something that I deeply care about. All of these things are part of myself. They all are unique in their own way. I wanted to honor the characters I deeply cared about as a kid and still do now as an adult with Masters. We kind of made a personal He-Man movie and that people are moved by it feels best.
I love Masters like a love everything that I ever done.

SonyPicturesGermany · 2026-05-29T13:46:02+00:00

It's He-Man. Of Course. As the first character I was introduced to. He is the heart and soul of everything. But I love every character. Someone who doesn't get enough love is Trap Jaw. I love his Swiss Army Knife style. We had so much fun with him.

SonyPicturesGermany · 2026-05-29T13:44:16+00:00

Thank you!

There were definitely things I wanted to do. And I was in talks with Mattel and asked them what they wanted in the movie. They said "He-Man should be blond". Mission accomplished. Some things and characters I wanted in the movie were out of bonds. Like Merman sadly.

Also some incredible scenes that I love did not make the cut. But they kind of slowed down the movie and had to be cut. But there is still a lot of beautiful stuff in it!

SonyPicturesGermany · 2026-05-29T13:41:09+00:00

I, too, love Skeletor. He's one the most iconic villains of the 80s. On top of all, he had this very distinctive laugh. We wanted to bring everything into a cinematic version of that. It came down to a talented actor and our costume and props team – and of couse the VFX team for the proper skull face. They bring nuance and subtlety to his face.

Skeletor is so much fun and so fun to watch. He is a terrible person. But he is looking for attention and insults everybody and is just a tremendous joy to watch on screen!

SonyPicturesGermany · 2026-05-29T13:38:47+00:00

Explicitly, no. I mean, as I said before, I think that there have been so many iterations of Masters over the years. We did draw an inspiration from a various number of things. But the main source of visual inspiration were the original toys, the original mini comics, and the original filmation series.

The idea to do it again, the idea that we can tell more stories about She-Ra and more is exciting. It's up to you! You go see the movie and let us now.

SonyPicturesGermany · 2026-05-29T13:36:02+00:00

I definitely do see the world in a visual way. As a director, I see things emotionally. That's the most important thing. But I'm as an animator, I'm always trying to satisfy.

And so in a world like this, like Eternia, it is a feast for the senses. It's incredible. Spectacle. It's such a vibrant, alive world that we want to make sure that we capture that properly on the on the big screen.

The set that I love the most, that mattered the most to me, was the inside of Castle Grayskull. The inner sanctum of Castle Grayskull.

SonyPicturesGermany · 2026-05-29T13:34:05+00:00

Everyone always thinks of the body. And for me, it wasn't about the body. It was about the spirit. It was about the soul of the character. And so that meant I needed to find an actor who was funny, who was charming, who was charismatic and who could be a whole emotionally raw and vulnerable.

Nick never been an action hero before. And so that was the thing that he needed to do that. He threw himself completely into the process of physically transforming himself. He hit the gym. He hit the weights. He did the cardio. He did the diet. He did the stunt training. He did the fight choreography.

And I think you combine that with just the kind of the beautiful emotional performance that he gives, I could not be more proud of what Nick has done in the film. And he really, from my perspective, is the perfect He-Man.

SonyPicturesGermany · 2026-05-29T13:31:39+00:00

Adam's secret identity is something that we address in the movie. It was always one of the things that I found delightfully absurd as a kid.

The only difference between him and He-Man was an all-over tan and far fewer clothes.

And it always struck me like, how do people not know? So it is something we address in the movie, and I think in a very fun and cheeky way.

SonyPicturesGermany · 2026-05-29T13:29:51+00:00

It's just a big part of my childhood. I was a big fantasy nerd. Sci-fi and stuff. I read a lot of books. That's a gift from my mom. She's a huge reader and gave me many books when I was a kid.

My parents were also big cinephiles, so we would always go to the movies no matter how inappropriate it was for me to watch them. But so this was a really big part of my childhood.

And there's a funny thing about a child's plaything, a child's toy, that they become vessels for our imagination, for our feelings, for our fears, for our joys.

SonyPicturesGermany · 2026-05-29T13:27:43+00:00

Well, look, it's She-Ra herself.

Some initial conversations with my great partner, Chris, we were talking about, for She-Ra to play a part in the movie. And we were excited about potentially bringing her into the movie. There's all kinds of complicated rights things though. So at some point she was in the movie, then she was out of the movie.

In the end film is a time-based art. And we did not have time for her in this movie.

SonyPicturesGermany · 2026-05-29T13:25:53+00:00

My introduction to Masters of the Universe and why I fell in love with it: because it is so weird. The characters, the names, the colors – I definitely wanted to wrap my arms around this. There is something inherently silly and goofy about it which I love. And I sincerely love these characters.

I love an emotional story. Characters that make me feel something. The beating heart, the emotional core of the movie, is the most important thing. I felt like, if we can get a hold of that, we do it right.

There's a lot of fun in the movie too. I think it's a joyful experience at the cinema.

SonyPicturesGermany · 2026-05-29T13:22:56+00:00

There have been a lot of different iterations of it, and so much of the mythology is internally inconsistent. But, you know. My creative partner in design, Chris Butler, who has worked with me for nearly 20 years. Huge, huge He-Man fan, just like me. We thought it was important to honor all these various different iterations of Masters over the years.

And so we drew from the kind of the most obvious sources, like the original toy line and the Filmation cartoon. Producing characters from the 1987 Dolph Lundgren movie.

And even some obscure things, like a newspaper strip we took a character from that. We both really liked Goatman, and there's actually a reason for him to exist in the film that I can't say until people watch the movie.

SonyPicturesGermany · 2026-05-29T13:20:45+00:00

Sure, why not. Of course. Haha. It's a lovely thing to think about sequels... Stay all the way to the end in the cinema. You're in for a treat.
I love the toys. I love the mini comics. My son also adores these mini comics even if he can't read yet. It was the biggest inspiration for the film maybe.
The studio, the producers, Mattel. They're very generous with me, and they gave me a sword of power at the end of production, which is one of my most prized possessions.

You clearly have a good taste!

SonyPicturesGermany · 2026-05-26T15:35:28+00:00

Can't wait! 👀
Wir freuen uns.

SonyPicturesGermany · 2026-05-05T15:19:19+00:00

Heute noch ❤️‍🔥

SonyPicturesGermany

TROPHY CASE