Geeks of Color sat down with Camila Mendes at CinemaCon 2026 in Las Vegas, where Amazon MGM Studios brought the cast of Masters of the Universe to Caesars Palace ahead of the film’s June 5 release.
Camila Mendes has been a Riverdale lifer in the public imagination for almost a decade. Veronica Lodge built her career and locked herself into a type. So when Travis Knight handed her the sword and gave her Teela in the new live-action Masters of the Universe, that meant something. We were in the room as she talked about it, and the way she described the audition process was the most animated she got in the entire conversation.
There is a version of this casting that does not happen. A different director sees the Riverdale resume, the Vogue cover, the rom-com run, and never makes the call. Knight made the call. The result is a Teela that does not look anything like the spoiled-rich-girl shorthand other people put on Mendes years ago.
The film from Amazon MGM Studios hits theatres on June 5. Nicholas Galitzine is Prince Adam / He-Man. Idris Elba is Duncan, also known as Man-At-Arms, who is Teela’s adoptive father and the general training He-Man’s heroic warriors. Mendes is Teela, the sword-slinging heart of Eternia’s defence, fighting alongside Adam against Skeletor.
The relationship Mendes is most excited to talk about is the one with Idris.
Why Camila Mendes Wanted Teela So Badly
“It’s funny that you mentioned Riverdale,” Mendes told us when asked about her journey to the role. “Because the fact that I booked this project, I hadn’t felt anything this much since Riverdale, in terms of how badly I wanted a role. I really wanted this role. I really felt in my gut, I’m so right for this. I know I can bring something to this.”
That gut feeling is the part she kept coming back to. The Riverdale parallel is not Mendes saying she misses being on a teen show. It is her saying that the wanting felt the same. The hunger felt the same. She has had to fight for the same thing twice, ten years apart, in two completely different phases of her career.
“It’s so crazy to be in this next phase of my life, post-Riverdale, and to book a role that I think is so different from Veronica. You know?”
The Veronica shed is the headline. Mendes does not pretend otherwise.
Travis Knight Saw Teela When Others Saw Veronica
“I applaud Travis for seeing that in me,” Mendes said, “because some other directors might see somebody who played a spoiled rich bitch on a teen show and go, she’s not right for this. She doesn’t do that. But I feel like he saw the Teela in me. And I knew I saw the Teela in me, but it was important that the people on the other side saw the Teela in me. I’m just so grateful that he took that chance.”
The most interesting part of any actor’s career is rarely the role they were always going to get. It is the one they had to convince somebody to give them. Knight, who came to Masters of the Universe off a directing track that includes Kubo and the Two Strings and Bumblebee, picked the version of Mendes most directors had not bothered to imagine. That choice shows up on screen.
Idris Elba’s “Papa Bear” Energy on the Masters of the Universe Set
The Idris dynamic is the conversation Mendes leans into when she talks about the shoot itself. On screen, Duncan is Teela’s father. Off-screen, she said the energy carried over.
“Oh my god, Idris and I are so tight,” she told us. “I feel like he became like a father figure to me on set. He’s such a papa bear, and I love him. He’s hilarious. Figuring that dynamic out with him was really fun.”
There is a real-life beat inside the on-screen story here. Mendes plays a young woman who supports Adam through his self-discovery as he steps into the He-Man mantle. At the same time, Teela is carrying real resentment toward Duncan that the film will explore.
“Part of Teela’s storyline in this movie is supporting Adam on that journey,” Mendes said. “But her other storyline has a lot to do with her relationship to Duncan. She has a lot of resentment toward him that you’re going to learn more about as people get to see the film. That really was one of my favourite parts of playing her. Playing that emotional storyline with her father.”
So the off-screen “papa bear” energy with Idris and the on-screen resentment toward Duncan sit atop each other in every scene. That tension is what gives a fantasy property like Masters of the Universe a chance to land as something more than CGI swords.
Stay tuned for more coverage from our red-carpet conversations with the rest of the cast.