Nearly four decades before its big-screen revival, Masters of the Universe overcame a string of setbacks to power its way into theaters.
Known for Barbie but struggling with action figures, Mattel launched the property in 1982 with a toy line that included the sword-wielding, muscle-clad He-Man and bony nemesis Skeletor. To capitalize on the toys’ popularity, animated series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe debuted a year later, centering on the two leads battling over planet Eternia and its Castle Grayskull, where Prince Adam transforms into the powerful He-Man.
Cannon Group and Mattel began working on a live-action film with a script from Muppet Show writer David Odell. Director Gary Goddard dealt with constant budget issues and recalled in 2015, “Behind the scenes, it was pretty hairy, with regards to the money not being there.” Castmember Barry Livingston tells The Hollywood Reporter about Goddard’s relationship with the producers, “By the end of shoot, which was dragging on and going way over budget and schedule, there was a lot of tension. I sensed that the director was under a lot of pressure to get it finished.”
Starring as He-Man was Dolph Lundgren, the Sweden-born martial arts expert known for portraying Ivan Drago in 1985’s Rocky IV. The performer was still perfecting his English at the time, and his garbled delivery led Goddard to push for a different actor to dub lines, although budget limitations prevented it. “I felt very on-the-spot,” Lundgren tells THR.
Frank Langella played Skeletor, and the Tony-winning actor would at times grow frustrated with long days spent in heavy prosthetic makeup. “Some nights, they wouldn’t even get anything done [with him],” Livingston recalls. “Once I saw him so fed up, he just peeled all that shit off his face and said, ‘I’m going home.’”
Rounding out the cast were James Tolkan, Meg Foster and an early-career Courteney Cox. Chelsea Field, who played Teela in the film, remembers spending time on weekends with a group of the project’s team, including Cox, Tolkan, Langella and editor Anne V. Coates. “We all would have dinner parties every week,” Field says. “We’d go to Courteney’s house and my house. Courteney loved cooking, and I did, too.”
Masters of the Universe hit theaters on Aug. 7, 1987. With limited marketing, it collected $17 million ($50 million today), failing to turn a profit. The franchise returns to theaters June 5 with Amazon MGM’s reboot that stars Nicholas Galitzine and Jared Leto.
Lundgren, who cameos in the reboot, calls the original’s release “disappointing” but proudly adds that Masters “has become one of my most popular movies.”
This story appeared in the June 3 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
