Masters of the Universe

Masters of the Universe is a 1987 science fiction/fantasy film based on the toy line by the same name. The movie stars Dolph Lundgren as He-Man and Frank Langella as Skeletor. more...

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Other actors include Jon Cypher as Man-At-Arms, Chelsea Field as Teela and Billy Barty as Gwildor, the short Thenorian inventor/locksmith.

The film was released in the USA on August 7, 1987 after the popularity of the toy line and cartoon had peaked.

Production

The character of Gwildor was introduced to replace Orko as the short mischievous side-kick to He-Man. The director confirms this on the film's DVD audio-commentary, as the level of special effects technology at the time would have not allowed for the character of Orko to be created. Dolph Lundgren had to perform all of his own stunts as there were no stunt doubles available who matched his size and build. Meg Foster's portrayal of Evil-Lyn is somewhat different from how Evil-Lyn is portrayed in other media. In the movie, she is seen more as Skeletor's lover and advisor than a witch who looks to overthrow him. However, she still uses magic during the movie and eventually abandons him before the final battle of the movie. The movie was originally planned to take place in Eternia, but the location was changed to Earth due to budget constraints. Most of the buildings seen in the movie were destroyed later by the 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake. The writers intended there to be a continuing rivalry between He-Man and Blade as the character utters at one point: \"I've been waiting a long time for this.\" However due to the character's limited screen time this subplot was never explored.

The character of She-Ra, He-Man's twin sister, was originally going to feature in the movie, and concept designs were drawn for her costume. However, she never made it into any drafts of the screenplay. The original draft was written in late 1985, right around the time She-Ra was launching. Earlier drafts of the script reveal that the Eternians are descendants of Earthlings, and feature a NASA space probe and US flag being found in the vaults of Castle Grayskull, prompting the explanation that human life arrived on Eternia when it was colonized by a space exploration team from Earth's future. This scene appears in the comic adaptation of the movie. The final battle between He-Man and Skeletor was financed entirely on Gary Goddard's own money, after studio bosses cancelled funding prior to the movie's completion. As a result, Goddard was unable to make the final battle as elaborate as he had originally intended. In the final portion of the fight between Skeletor and He-Man after the Havoc Staff is destroyed, Skeletor unsheathes and proceeds to duel with a virtually identical sword to He-Man's. Although no explicit point is made about this in the film, it would seem to be an obvious reference to the concept from the original toyline that He-Man and Skeletor each possessed one \"half\" of the Power Sword, coloured grey and purple respectively. Skeletor's quest to possess both halves, which form the key to Castle Grayskull, was his major ongoing motivation in the earliest MOTU minicomics and DC comics, but was largely ignored in the more well-known Filmation cartoon's continuity. As Skeletor's costume was changed from purple to black in the film, his sword accordingly reflects this change in his colour scheme as well. The concept of a sword whose halves were each possessed by two enemies had previously been used in the BlackStar toy line and cartoon, which had also been produced by Filmation, with something similar appearing in Michael Moorcock's stories about Elric, a part of his larger Multiverse mythology. Dolph Lundgren was the first actor cast for the film while Frank Langella was the last actor cast for the film.

Read more at Wikipedia.org