For the generation that grew up in the 1980s, the release of the recent big-budget “Masters of the Universe” movie would undoubtedly have conjured up a sense of déjà-vu.
Picture the scene. The year is 1987. You’ve got the action figures and the Castle Grayskull playset, you’ve watched every episode of the cartoon again and again, and you can recite He-Man’s opening credits voiceover by heart. He has the power!
Then someone tells you there’s a live-action film adaptation coming out.
You persuade your parents to take you to the theater, pick up a great big bucket of popcorn, and get ready to be transported to the familiar surroundings of Eternia. And then…
Well, it’s fair to say this is not the “Masters of the Universe” you know and love. Sure, leading man Dolph Lundgren is big, but why does he look and dress nothing like He-Man? Who’s that Gwildor guy, and what the hell happened to Orko, BattleCat and Prince Adam? Why do He-Man and Skeletor spend so much of the movie on planet Earth? And when are we going to hear that famous theme tune? (Spoiler: you won’t.)
By the power of Grayskull, this was not the film ’80s kids expected, or indeed wanted. But disappointing a pre-teen fanbase was the least of “Masters of the Universe”‘s worries. Sales of Mattel’s previously all-conquering toyline were way past their peak, while the appetite for films trying to capture “Star Wars“‘ unique blend of sci-fi and fantasy had all but disappeared. Perhaps more importantly, “MOTU” 1987 had been bankrolled by an ambitious but eccentric studio, whose efforts to break into the mainstream had left it in a financial state so perilous that not even the most powerful man in the universe could save it.
“Masters of the Universe” was one of the undoubted pop culture success stories of the 1980s. Although Mattel had made the mistake of turning down the licence to make “Star Wars” toys, the toy giant responded in spectacular style by launching a fantasy behemoth of its own in 1982. He-Man, Skeletor and their Eternian colleagues would soon become household names, largely thanks to the advertising power of an immensely popular cartoon series.
Decades before “Transformers”, “The Lego Movie” and “Barbie” made big money at the box office, producer Edward Pressman had seen the potential in taking a toy franchise to the big screen. There had been early interest in “He-Man” from major studios (including Warner Bros), but — largely thanks to delays caused by management changes at Mattel — interest had waned by the time Cannon Films stepped in to foot the bill.
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Throughout the ’80s, Cannon had become more renowned for the quantity of its output than the quality, as a pair of ambitious Israeli cousins, Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, invested in unashamed B-movies like “Enter the Ninja”, Charles Bronson’s “Death Wish” sequels, and Chuck Norris vehicle “The Delta Force”. The studio had around 40 movies in production at the time “Masters of the Universe” got the green light, but was keen to make a move on tentpole blockbuster territory. As well as financing the disastrous “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace”, Cannon had also paid Sylvester Stallone a record-breaking fee to headline arm-wrestling drama “Over the Top”. Both flopped at the box office.
Despite being “a little bit reluctant because it was [based on] a toy line”, Stallone’s “Rocky IV” co-star Dolph Lundgren signed up to play the mighty He-Man. The Swedish actor looked more like the lead singer of a hair metal band than the sword-wielding hero of the cartoons, though his impressive physique (coupled with He-Man’s scanty wardrobe) ensured it was hard to find a convincing stunt double.
Director Gary Goddard also became concerned that his leading man (topping the bill for the first time) wasn’t delivering dialogue as he wanted, and subtly chopped some of Lundgren’s lines. He reasoned that heroes played by Clint Eastwood are often men of few words, with their sidekicks usually the ones supplying the supplemental information.
There were never any doubts about the man playing He-Man’s nemesis, Skeletor, however. Frank Langella had caught Goddard’s eye in “Amadeus” on Broadway, and — buried under some impressive make-up — relished the opportunity to ham it up as Eternia’s villain-in-chief. But this dark, calculating interpretation was a universe away from the cackling, frequently thwarted bad guy of the cartoon series. It wasn’t the only way the film would completely lose track of what had made kids fall in love with the “Masters of the Universe” brand.
Even in 2026, with the help of CG effects and a colossal budget, the new “Masters of the Universe” had to pick and choose which classic Eternians — including Mekaneck, one of the weirdest “Masters of the Universe” characters — made the transfer to the big screen.
Spare a thought, though, for the 1987 fans who had to make do with (on Team He-Man) Man-at-Arms, Teela and the Sorceress; and (on Team Skeletor) Evil-Lyn and Beast Man.
Hovering wizard sidekick Orko was replaced by a new character, Thenurian inventor Gwildor, while Skeletor’s rogues’ gallery was expanded to the tune of lizard man Saurod, the sword-wielding Blade, and the not-sure-what-he-is Karg. Long-standing favorites like Trap-Jaw, Tri-Klops, and Mer-Man were conspicuous by their absence.
Skeletor was supported by legions of laser-wielding, Stormtrooper-esque soldiers, though — thanks to Mattel’s mandate that He-Man couldn’t kill anyone — these were robots rather than people. He-Man also tended to favor a laser gun of his own, mostly keeping his famous Sword of Power for show. He didn’t even need the sword for a big transformation moment, seeing as alter-ego Prince Adam and his green tiger BFF Cringer were conveniently jettisoned from the story.
The movie’s biggest problem, however, was arguably transferring the action to Earth. This didn’t contradict franchise mythology (He-Man’s mom, Queen Marlena, had long been established as an astronaut from Earth), and the new film has followed suit by bringing Adam to Oklahoma City. But in “Masters of the Universe” 1987, the decision simply made the action feel small — despite the best efforts of legendary “Star Wars” effects veteran Richard Edlund.
Human teens Courteney Cox (the “Friends” star’s first movie role) and Robert Duncan McNeill (“Star Trek: Voyager”) did their best to grapple with an extended visit from walking, talking action figures, but you’d never know this was a He-Man movie if people didn’t keep saying his name.
When Eternia did get a look in, it exposed the film’s financial limitations, as over-investment and a series of expensive flops started to catch up with Golan and Globus. Goddard had wanted to shoot exteriors in Iceland to capture a more otherworldly vibe but had to make do with a few days at Vasquez Rocks (a location near Los Angeles that frequently doubled for alien worlds in “Star Trek”) towards the end of production.
Money was so tight that, on the final scheduled day of the shoot, the plug was pulled as soon as the clock struck midnight, before Goddard had all the coverage he wanted. The director later admitted that he made a deal to stump up $50,000 of his own money (a sum matched by Cannon) to fund one last day of shooting on He-Man and Skeletor’s climactic battle. At least the film would have an ending…
But was it worth it? “Masters of the Universe” made a disappointing $17.3 million at the US box office. It was just the 65th highest-grossing release of 1987, and some way behind infamous stinker “Jaws: The Revenge”. It certainly wasn’t enough to save Cannon, which had sold off a large chunk of its film library earlier that year in order to stave off bankruptcy. The studio (by then known as Cannon Pictures) would release its final film in 1994.
“The Cannon boys were very charismatic and very ambitious,” Lundgren recalled in the documentary “Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films”.
“They were guys who came to Hollywood to take it over in a quick sort of way, perhaps not playing by all the rules but sometimes that works, and it worked for a while for these guys too. ‘Masters’ was their big shot, and even though it didn’t reach the heights they’d wished for with ‘Star Wars’ and so forth, I think it’s still a decent picture compared to some of the others they made. ‘Masters’ certainly beats ‘Superman IV’ in watchability.”
“Masters of the Universe” 1987 is available to stream on Prime Video in the US and on Prime Video and ITVX in the UK.
