{"id":601146,"date":"2026-05-24T08:50:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T08:50:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/601146\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T08:50:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T08:50:26","slug":"how-the-new-masters-of-the-universe-pays-tribute-to-the-1987-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/601146\/","title":{"rendered":"How the New ‘Masters of the Universe’ Pays Tribute to the 1987 Film"},"content":{"rendered":"

We all have our Masters of the Universe. Whether it\u2019s the original cartoon, the mini-comics from the toys, or the more modern Netflix versions, every generation has its entry point<\/a> to He-Man, Skeletor, and the world of Eternia. Of course, another major one is the 1987 film starring Dolph Lundgren<\/a> and Frank Langella. One fan of that film is Travis Knight, the director of the new Masters of the Universe<\/a>, who made sure to weave references to all eras of Masters of the Universe into the film, even the original 1987 film.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been so many different iterations of Masters of the Universe, and there is dramatic inconsistency within it,\u201d Knight told io9 and other journalists last month at CinemaCon. \u201cLike you could follow one form of the mythology [and] it varies from a different one. And so, in the end, we decided what worked best for our movie and [to] not worry about those things that didn\u2019t fit within that version of it. But part of it was I wanted to honor a lot of these different eras of the stories. And a big part of that was the 1987 movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

So how, specifically, did he do that? Well, first and foremost, cameos. Both Karg and Pigface, characters introduced as minions of Skeletor in the 1987 version, appear in this movie. Second is costumes. \u201cTeela\u2019s costume is an example of [a reference to 1987],\u201d Knight said. \u201cIt\u2019s a combination of that classic one-piece that Teela wore in the cartoon and the kind of gunslinger costume that Chelsea [Field] wore in the film.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MastersTravis Knight on the set of Masters of the Universe. \u2013 MGM <\/p>\n

There\u2019s also some influence from the iconic Frank Langella Skeletor performance in Jared Leto\u2019s version of the character. \u201cFrank Langella, I mean, he gave such a great performance in that film,\u201d Knight said. \u201cMany think the best part of that film, and he\u2019s oftentimes talked about how that\u2019s his favorite character that he ever played. For good reason. I mean, he\u2019s a ton of fun. He\u2019s just chewing the scenery the whole time. So there was that aspect of that character. And so in the way we shaped Skeletor, it was looking at the origins, the Alan Oppenheimer version, the Frank Langella version, and then trying to find our own version that felt true to this movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s one more major connection, too, but it\u2019s a tiny bit of a spoiler, so let\u2019s drop one of these.<\/p>\n

\"Io9<\/p>\n

As revealed in the film\u2019s press notes (and by the fact he showed up at the premiere), Dolph Lundgren himself, the original live-action He-Man, appears in the new Masters of the Universe. He \u201cshares a scene alongside [Nicholas] Galitzine\u2019s Adam as a surprisingly insightful weightlifter at the local gym,\u201d according to the notes. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of daunting that it\u2019s been 38 to 39 years since I was last on Eternia,\u201d Lundgren added. \u201cIt feels really cool to be back, though.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apparently, Lundgren was always open to a cameo, but the original idea didn\u2019t quite mesh with his idea of it, so he worked with the team to change it. \u201cThe original cameo was something different. It wasn\u2019t as much of a role model,\u201d Lundgren said. \u201cIf I was going to be part of it, I wanted to make it special and make it something where the young He-Man could take the older He-Man\u2019s words of wisdom with him, which he does now. And the director and producer liked my idea, so that\u2019s what ended up in the script. \u2018The muscles don\u2019t make the man, kid.\u2019 That\u2019s what I\u2019ve learned in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

What we\u2019ve learned in our lives is that the new Masters of the Universe comes to theaters on June 5, and it is aiming to honor not just new fans of the franchise but fans of all eras.<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We all have our Masters of the Universe. Whether it\u2019s the original cartoon, the mini-comics from the toys,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[188733,96,96074,2839,177331,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-601146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-dolph-lundgren","tag-entertainment","tag-masters-of-the-universe","tag-movies","tag-travis-knight","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}