He-Man & Masters of the Universe Creators Discuss Skeletor’s New Origin (Exclusive)

He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe has finally landed on Netflix, with the CG animated series making several big changes to the world of Eternia while sticking to some of the core tenants that helped make Castle Grayskull such a big name in the world of pop culture. Prince Adam is front and center in the new ten-episode long season but will of course be joined by the villainous Skeletor, the trademark villain of Eternia that has been a thorn in the side of He-Man’s throughout the decades of the franchise. 

Recently, we had the opportunity to chat with showrunners Rob David and Jeff Matsuda about the creation of this new animated series and dove into the new take on the nefarious Skeletor and how his origin was changed to make him the uncle of Adam, creating a link between the hero and villain which had not been touched upon so in-depth before:

“When the character of Skeletor was first created in 1982, his origin was told in several mini-comics, where the franchise said that he was a demon from another dimension, from a dimension filled with skull-faced people who look just like him. It’s fun and great!” David noted about the original origin of the skull-faced wizard.

Rob also went into detail about how the idea of Skeletor being Adam’s uncle isn’t an entirely new concept by explaining that “there was a mini-comic in 1987 where they hinted that Skeletor might be Randor’s brother, but they never directly said it. In 2002, when they had the next He-Man show, they noted that Skeletor was Keldor, but the link between him and Adam wasn’t totally made explicit. They never really got to explore that familial relationship.”

In creating He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe, David and Matsuda saw this as an opportunity to “really dive into that relationship and make the drama personal with stakes. We had the perfect opportunity to bring this all together and show the comparisons and contrasts between these two characters. They’re both heirs of Grayskull but the fact that Adam doesn’t covet the power makes him the right choice to wield it.” 

This version of Skeletor is voiced by actor Ben Diskin, making for a departure from the recent Revelation, which saw Mark Hamill taking on the role.

Have you already begun binging this return trip to Eternia? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of He-Man.