{"id":2931,"date":"2026-06-04T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/06\/04\/the-first-masters-of-the-universe-muscled-into-theaters-in-1987\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T17:00:00","slug":"the-first-masters-of-the-universe-muscled-into-theaters-in-1987","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/06\/04\/the-first-masters-of-the-universe-muscled-into-theaters-in-1987\/","title":{"rendered":"The First \u2018Masters of the Universe\u2019 Muscled Into Theaters in 1987"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\tNearly four decades before its big-screen revival, Masters of the Universe<\/a> <\/em>overcame a string of setbacks to power its way into theaters. <\/p>\n

\tKnown for Barbie but struggling with action figures, Mattel<\/a> launched the property in 1982 with a toy line that included the sword-wielding, muscle-clad He-Man<\/a> and bony nemesis Skeletor. To capitalize on the toys\u2019 popularity, animated series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe<\/em> 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. \t<\/p>\n

\tCannon Group and Mattel began working on a live-action film with a script from Muppet Show<\/em> writer David Odell. Director Gary Goddard dealt with constant budget issues and recalled in 2015, \u201cBehind the scenes, it was pretty hairy, with regards to the money not being there.\u201d Castmember Barry Livingston tells The Hollywood Reporter<\/em> about Goddard\u2019s relationship with the producers, \u201cBy 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.\u201d <\/p>\n

\tStarring as He-Man was Dolph Lundgren<\/a>, the Sweden-born martial arts expert known for portraying Ivan Drago in 1985\u2019s Rocky IV<\/em>. 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. \u201cI felt very on-the-spot,\u201d Lundgren tells THR<\/em>. <\/p>\n

\tFrank Langella<\/a> played Skeletor, and the Tony-winning actor would at times grow frustrated with long days spent in heavy prosthetic makeup. \u201cSome nights, they wouldn\u2019t even get anything done [with him],\u201d Livingston recalls. \u201cOnce I saw him so fed up, he just peeled all that shit off his face and said, \u2018I\u2019m going home.’\u201d \t<\/p>\n

\tRounding out the cast were James Tolkan, Meg Foster and an early-career Courteney Cox<\/a>. Chelsea Field, who played Teela in the film, remembers spending time on weekends with a group of the project\u2019s team, including Cox, Tolkan, Langella and editor Anne V. Coates. \u201cWe all would have dinner parties every week,\u201d Field says. \u201cWe\u2019d go to Courteney\u2019s house and my house. Courteney loved cooking, and I did, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tMasters of the Universe<\/em> 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\u2019s reboot that stars Nicholas Galitzine<\/a> and Jared Leto<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\tLundgren, who cameos in the reboot, calls the original\u2019s release \u201cdisappointing\u201d but proudly adds that Masters<\/em> \u201chas become one of my most popular movies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThis story appeared in the June 3 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1737,1738,1739,1740,2,863,1670,1344,1741,164,60,290],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-courteney-cox","category-dolph-lundgren","category-frank-langella","category-he-man","category-hollywood","category-hollywood-flashback","category-jared-leto","category-masters-of-the-universe","category-mattel","category-movie-features","category-movies","category-nicholas-galitzine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}