Masters of the Universe already looks like the kind of fantasy blockbuster Hollywood stopped making years ago. At a time when most fantasy films keep drowning themselves in dark grey palettes, lifeless CGI worlds, and visually identical “realistic” aesthetics, it almost feels like the genre forgot why fantasy was supposed to feel magical in the first place. Set to release on June 5, 2026, Masters of the Universe suddenly seems ready to fight back against that era with explosive colors, giant practical sets, creature prosthetics, and a world that unapologetically embraces fantasy instead of hiding it behind darkness.

Here are the 3 biggest reasons why Masters of the Universe already feels completely different from almost every modern fantasy movie releasing today.

One of the biggest things instantly separating Masters of the Universe from modern fantasy films is its fearless use of color. Production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas revealed the team intentionally stayed faithful to the bright color palettes of the original He-Man cartoons and Mattel toys instead of toning everything down for “realism.” From red-accented Roton vehicles to glowing forests and the massive city of Eternos, the film reportedly embraces vivid fantasy visuals without apology. Dyas even joked that while most sci-fi films always default to grey spaceships, “not in this world.”

“We all know spaceships are always gray, right? Not in this world.” Dyas told Collider.

The deeper reason behind that creative choice also connects directly to He-Man’s original identity. While franchises like Dune and Star Wars often lean into singular muted palettes, Masters of the Universe instead pushes toward loud, almost surreal fantasy aesthetics inspired by the animated series many of the film’s creators grew up watching. Dyas additionally revealed the team even removed green tones from parts of Eternia’s forests to create a strange “alien” feeling for audiences, proving just how carefully the movie is approaching its visual world-building.

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And color isn’t the only thing Masters of the Universe seems determined to bring back from old-school fantasy filmmaking.

While most modern fantasy blockbusters now rely heavily on green screens and unfinished CGI worlds, Masters of the Universe reportedly went in the complete opposite direction with massive practical sets, physical props, creature prosthetics, and detailed costumes built almost entirely from scratch. Costume designer Richard Sale revealed the production worked closely with prosthetics artist Barrie Gower to create practical creature designs for characters like Goat Man, Spikor, Pig-Head, and especially Skeletor, played by Jared Leto.

One of the film’s biggest achievements reportedly came through Skeletor himself, with the team spending months testing cloaks, textures, and different shades of purple before finally locking the villain’s final on-screen design.

“One of the choices I made early on when we designed Skeletor was to not have the cross strap, which is from the costume with the bones, because it became too similar in a way that just became a negative of each other. Again, we were trying to move away slightly from the bone idea — just for Skeletor. He lives in Snake Mountain, so he should be more snake-like. But then we used a lot of snake skeletons in the design, so we kept the bone thing alive, but just having it a little bit more referential to his detail.” Sale told Collider.

The production additionally built nearly every prop, weapon, belt, and costume piece entirely in-house instead of outsourcing assets. According to prop master Steven Morris, the movie even operated through a massive 40,000-square-foot workshop dedicated to crafting Eternia from scratch. The team reportedly focused heavily on weathering, textures, hidden details, and practical realism so the world would actually feel “lived in” instead of digitally artificial.

And behind all that chaos of colors, practical sets, and creature work, one name seems to be holding the entire vision together: Travis Knight himself.

Unlike most blockbuster directors, Travis Knight comes directly from the world of stop-motion animation through LAIKA, the studio behind films like Coraline, ParaNorman, and Kubo and the Two Strings. According to Knight, the original He-Man cartoon’s “riot of color” became the film’s visual North Star from the very beginning. The director admitted modern productions naturally keep drifting toward grey palettes during filmmaking, which forced the team to constantly push the movie back toward vivid fantasy aesthetics instead.

“It starts when you have source material like the Filmation cartoon, which was this riot of color. It was polychromatic splendor. It was insane, their use of color in that cartoon. That was essentially my North Star." Knight told Collider.

Knight additionally revealed the film was never approached as just another toy adaptation or CGI-heavy franchise project. Instead, every department reportedly worked together to create a cohesive fantasy world blending practical effects, prosthetics, costumes, and digital visuals into one unified experience. The director especially praised prosthetics artist Barrie Gower and the crew for adding countless hidden He-Man details throughout the movie purely out of fandom passion, proving that Masters of the Universe may ultimately stand apart because the people making it genuinely cared about the world they were building.

And thus, this June 5, Masters of the Universe will finally bring audiences back to the kind of colorful, unapologetically wild fantasy spectacle modern blockbusters slowly drifted away from for years.

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What are your thoughts on Masters of the Universe’s bold fantasy approach so far? And do you think modern fantasy movies need to bring practical filmmaking back again? Let us know in the comments.