There is a version of the Masters of the Universe story where Jared Leto is the cautionary tale. The guy who showed up, did his weird thing, got quietly sidelined by the studio, and walked away with a cheque while the film moved on without him. That version of events felt plausible two weeks ago. Then the film came out.
Before we get to that, though, let’s talk about what Leto was actually doing on set every single day, because it’s exactly the kind of thing you’d expect from him and somehow still manages to be jarring when you hear it out loud.
Jared Leto Was Smearing Blood on His Face Every Morning On The Set Of Masters of the Universe
Because Skeletor’s skull was always going to be added digitally in post-production, Leto was performing every scene with his own face fully visible. No prosthetic skull. Just Jared Leto’s regular face, standing opposite his co-stars. His solution to giving those actors something to genuinely react to was to smear blood-like makeup across his face before every single take. Not occasionally. Every day.
Alison Brie, who plays Evil-Lyn in the film, described the experience in an exclusive interview with Extra TV: “Jared wore a full bodysuit. So, that blue muscled body was there every day with the cloak, with the boots, with the hands. And then he actually sort of covered his face in blood, so that we were just terrified, which was a cool aspect. It was like, you came to set like, ‘Oh, my God!’… I think it wouldn’t have felt as magical, it wouldn’t have transported us as much just looking at Jared’s face every day and he knew that, so it was a scary, blood-covered face.”
Director Travis Knight elaborated in a ScreenRant interview, describing working with the 54-year-old as an experience where Leto “would do something unexpected every single day, in ways that would delight me, that would horrify me, that would make me laugh.” Knight framed the blood ritual not as method acting grandstanding but as a practical act of generosity toward his scene partners. Leto wanted his co-stars to “live in the scene with him” rather than struggle to react to a blank, familiar face.
Which, if you step back for a second, is almost thoughtful. Almost.
This Is Not the First Time Leto Has Done Something Like This
If you were around for the Suicide Squad press cycle in 2016, you already have a specific expression forming on your face right now. That was the production where Leto, playing the Joker, sent his castmates an assortment of gifts to get into character. Viola Davis confirmed in a Vanity Fair interview that a dead hog arrived at the table read. Margot Robbie received a live rat, which she actually kept as a pet before her landlord found out. Will Smith got bullets. Leto himself then confirmed at the Suicide Squad premiere that he had also sent the cast used condoms and anal beads, describing it all as an attempt to “create an element of surprise.” He later insisted it was meant as a “goof” and that nothing crossed any lines. The cast, for their part, eventually sent the dead pig messenger back to Leto with a “personalized message” of their own.
By comparison, arriving to set with a blood-covered face every morning is practically professional.
Amazon MGM Tried to Pretend Jared Leto Wasn’t In Masters of the Universe
Here’s where the story gets genuinely strange. We reported back in May that Amazon MGM, having paid Leto an estimated $5 million to play Skeletor in their $175 million reboot, proceeded to keep him almost completely out of the marketing. He skipped the premiere on May 19th. He wasn’t at CinemaCon. He didn’t post a single thing about the film to his 11.4 million Instagram followers. A source close to the production told Puck that Leto “wasn’t thrilled with the film.” Amazon declined to comment.
The working theory at the time was that the studio was quietly distancing itself from an actor whose recent box office record had become a running joke online. Morbius bombed. Tron: Ares bombed. House of Gucci bombed. There is a whole genre of social media meme built around the idea of Leto as box office poison. So the thinking was: if his face isn’t in the trailers, maybe nobody notices he’s in it. There was also the matter of the Skeletor toy, which appeared to use a different voice entirely rather than Leto’s, adding another layer of weirdness to the whole situation.
And Then the Film Came Out
Our own Sergio Pereira reviewed Masters of the Universe for FOS, and his full review is worth reading. The headline tells you where he lands: “By the Power of Grayskull, Jared Leto Doesn’t Suck.” Sergio gave the film a 4 out of 5 and called Leto the star of the entire production, writing that “no one can believe it’s being said in 2026.” The character delivers the trademark cackles and insults of the original animated Skeletor while carrying genuine menace. Sergio noted that it has been a long time since a villain got to just be evil without a tragic backstory attached, and that it works.
Knight apparently fought to preserve Skeletor’s skull face after earlier drafts of the script had rewritten the villain as a man wearing a golden skull mask, a direction he rejected outright. The animators then worked to preserve every layer of personality Leto brought to the performance, so what you see on screen is his physicality and voice filtered through a digital skull that actually moves and reacts.
The daily blood ritual, the prosthetic muscle suit crafted by prosthetics expert Barry Gower, the decision to approach the studio himself about the role rather than waiting to be cast; all of it fed into a performance that the studio apparently didn’t want you to know existed. Turned out to be the best thing in the film.
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