‘Masters of the Universe’: Jared Leto to Play Skeletor in Live Action Reboot!!

By the Power of Grayskull! Prime Video‘s upcoming Masters of the Universe movie has its villain. Deadline reports that Jared Leto will play the skull-faced archvillain Skeletor opposite Nicholas Galitzine‘s He-Man in the upcoming film.

Three other actors have been announced to join the film as Skeletor’s villainous entourage. Sam C. Wilson (House of the Dragon) will play the metal-mandibled Trap-Jaw, Hafthor Bjornsson (The Northman) will play the powerhouse Goat Man, and Kojo Attah (The Beekeeper) will portray the three-eyed Tri-Klops. Leto, who is next tapped to star in Disney‘s Tron: Ares, is no stranger to the prosthetic makeup that will presumably transform him into the skeletal master of Snake Mountain: in 2022 he sported a face full of fangs as the titular living vampire in the much-mocked Morbius. Alison Brie is already set to join the film as Skeletor’s eerie-eyed aide-de-camp Evil-Lyn; opposing them with Galitzine‘s He-Man are Idris Elba as Man-At-Arms and Camila Mendes as Teela.

Who Is Skeletor?

First introduced as part of Mattel’s Masters of the Universe toyline in 1982, Skeletor is a blue-skinned evil wizard whose sinister magic has reduced his face to a fleshless skull. He was initially presented as a fairly one-dimensional villain, but later entries in the franchise expanded on his back story, revealing that he’s actually He-Man’s long-lost uncle, Keldor. Striking from the sinister Skull Mountain, he seeks to overthrow the rulers of the fantasy world Eternia and claim the power of Castle Grayskull for himself; he is opposed by He-Man, the super-powered alter ego of Eternia’s Prince Adam. Skeletor first hit the screen in the Filmation Masters of the Universe cartoon in the 1980s, where his high-pitched tones were provided by veteran voice actor Alan Oppenheimer. When the franchise hit the big screen in 1987, courtesy of Cannon Films, he was portrayed with Skakespearean grandeur by Frank Langella, who still considers the skull-faced tyrant to be one of his favorite roles. More recently, he has been featured on the Kevin Smith-produced Masters of the Universe: Revelation cartoon on Netflix: there, he was voiced by Mark Hamill.

A new Masters of the Universe film has been in development hell almost since the Cannon film slunk out of theaters in 1987. After years of development at Sony and Netflix, Travis Knight (Bumblebee) is set to direct the film for Prime Video. Chris Butler (ParaNorman) wrote the script: David Callaham and Aaron an d Adam Nee worked on the script’s initial draft.