100 Facts About He-Man

He's the guardian of Eternia

He's the protector of King Randor's legacy. He wears fur-covered briefs. So staggeringly masculine they had to give him two male names

He-Man was the star of one of the longest-running toy and media franchises ever to exist

Today, we're bringing you 100 facts about Masters of the Universe. The toy line that would one day be known as He-Man

in the Masters of the Universe started life in the late 1970s when Mattel began development on a toy line

for the Arnold Schwarzenegger-driven sword and sorcery film Conan the Barbarian. It was quickly realized that since the film would be rated R

for violence against camels and horses, among other things. Mattel could not market a line of toys

based on the film to children. It quickly evolved into something original. Mattel pivoted toward creating a toy line

that featured three primary characters. Tankhead, Bullethead, and He-Man were the three original toy prototypes created

While the prototypes for these figures were all 12 inches, the actual toys would be 5.5 inches tall

This would make these action figures appear larger and more powerful than G.I. Joe's

Eventually, the characters Tankhead and Bullethead were shot down, pun intended, due to them being incredibly weird

and arguably uncreative. However, the character of He-Man ended up sticking around

and Mattel would move forward, developing a line of toys around the character. He-Man's design was combined with artist Mark Taylor's vision for a Tarzan-style character named Torak

The name didn't stick, but the idea of a ripped dude in a fur bikini definitely did

The initial run of figures consisted of He-Man, Se-Man, Woolman, Man-at-Arms, and a demon cleverly named D-Man

Being originally based on Conan the Barbarian, He-Man's physique was based on Arnold Schwarzenegger's body at the time

In fact, everyone in Eternia is totally shredded in almost the exact same way

This was actually a cost-saving technique employed by Mattel. Having the characters share body parts and molds would bring down production costs

Originally titled Lords of Power, the toy line would undergo a name change to Masters of the Universe to avoid any religious association

With the toy line finally set, Mattel began selling the action figures to various big box retailers, and there was a lot of interest

However, without a real story behind the characters, children were getting confused as to who the villains and heroes were in the play set, and this was a concern to retailers

Mark Ellis, a development executive for Mattel, lied to retailers who were balking at the toy line

and basically said, oh, we didn't tell you. We're also including mini comic books with all the toys in order to really hook kids and build a broader world for them

This ended up being a genius piece of improvisation, and the toy was sold

The first Masters of the Universe mini comics were produced by DC Comics and were written by Don Glute

who famously wrote the novelization of The Empire Strikes Back. Glute created the entire universe and narrative behind Eternia

having only been provided with a few Polaroid photos of the action figures. In the first run of comics, He-Man did not have his alter ego as Prince Adam

He was just He-Man all the time. He was probably pretty bummed out on chilly days

In the comics, Castle Grayskull was originally inhabited and operated by a spooky ghost

named the Spirit of Grayskull, who was in charge of the castle's power. With the story set, the revised run of the Masters of the Universe toys included

He-Man, Man-at-Arms, Battle Cat, Beastman, and of course, Skeletor. Skeletor's design was based on creator Mark Taylor's sketches of a character

called The King of Sticks. Battle Cat was actually created from a different toy line

It was suggested that Mattel take a pre-existing tiger figure from the Big Jim toy line and put a saddle on it

The decision to repurpose the figure saved Mattel hundreds of thousands of dollars

in production costs. These were actually much-needed savings. In 1982, the rights holders to Conan the Barbarian

came back and sued Mattel for infringing on their character design. Mattel would win the lawsuit

though you can totally see the influence Conan had on He creation Eventually the time came to pitch the toys as to Toys R Us The big box toy retailer expressed concern that five don read and wouldn be able to grasp the story behind Masters of the Universe With more quick thinking

Mark Ellis proposed an animated television special. This led to a meeting with Filmation

producer Lou Scheimer, who gave the cartoon the green light. In 1983, He-Man and the Masters of

the Universe would debut and was one of the first cartoons ever produced for weekday syndication

The show needed to be produced quickly, so Filmation utilized a technique called rotoscoping to speed up the animation process

Rotoscoping is essentially just drawing over existing live-action footage. Fearing that the show would come off as being too serious for children, Filmation created the character of Orko to add some comedic relief to the cartoon

The show generated quite a bit of controversy at the time. It was one of the first cartoons to feature a muscular hero engaged in hand-to-hand combat, even though most of the combat was just someone drawing over videos of professional wrestlers

Fearing that the show would come off as being too violent, censorship boards would require every episode to end with a lessened PSA

some of which were pretty heavy, even for children. Remember, it's your body and no one should touch you in a way that you feel is wrong

Some groups of parents accused the show of being sexist due to the term He-Man being in the title

They weren't entirely wrong. It was twice as masculine as the words he or man by themselves

Some pretty big names were attached to the writing side of the cartoon. Notably, J. Michael Straczynski, who would go on to write some of the most legendary Spider-Man stories ever told

and also create the television shows Babylon 5 and Sense8. Paul Dini also wrote for the show

You might remember him for creating Batman the Animated Series. He-Man's voice actor, John Irwin

also provided the vocal talents for the character of Beastman. He was known at the time for voicing the wisecracking character of Reggie Mantle

on the cartoon Archie. 1983 saw the release of the first video game in the Masters of the Universe franchise

titled Masters of the Universe, The Power of He-Man. The game was released on the Atari 2600

It is borderline unplayable. I mean, look at that. Look how much fun nobody is having

It only took two years before Filmation realized that they had totally alienated young girls in a show called He-Man

In 1985, the character of She-Ra was introduced in the animated television special titled He-Man and She-Ra, The Secret of the Sword

The character was an immediate success with young girls, and She-Ra was given her own spinoff show called She-Ra, Princess of Power, that same year

She-Ra's voice actress was Melendie Britt, who was known at the time for playing Batgirl and Catwoman on the original Batman animated show

The two cartoons, He-Man and She-Ra, were worked on at the same time by the same crew

By the mid-80s, countries around the world were coming down with a case of loincloth fever

specifically and weirdly in Brazil, and he was even given his own Brazilian comic book series

serialized in newspapers. In the United States, He-Man would get his own newspaper comic strip

which began publication in 1986. Masters of the Universe was gaining a lot of global popularity

and it was only a matter of time before the franchise would catch the attention of the action film production powerhouse, Canon Films

Canon Films was known for producing schlocky, Chuck Norris-driven action movies. They wanted to get away from that, and so they invested heavily in bringing Masters of the

Universe to the big screen. David O'Dell was hired to pen the Masters of the Universe screenplay

He is known for his work on The Muppet Show, as well as writing the screenplay for The Dark Crystal. Canon's big-budget dreams for Masters of the Universe were dashed when the production of

Superman IV, The Quest for Peace, began going downhill. Bleeding money, the production company

needed to come up with a plan to make masters more affordable. So, they decided to set

the entirety of the movie on Earth, rather than build the very expensive fictional world of Eternia Mattel ran commercials advertising a contest and promotion of the film The winner Richard Sponsor will be featured in the film as Pig Boy one of Skeletor henchmen He was allowed to keep the costume Mattel had some pretty strict rules for the portrayal of He in the live film

He-Man couldn't kill anyone, be violent, or appear weak. To get around the no-killing rule, Skeletor's henchmen were turned into robots

Mattel also demanded that no new characters were to be added to the film. The film's producer and notorious sexual predator Gary Goddard

would later convince them to allow new characters to be added to the script by convincing them that new characters meant new toys

Dolph Lundgren, who was just coming out of a breakout role as Ivan Drago in Rocky IV

was hired to play the role of He-Man. At the time, Dolph Lundgren was a newcomer to Hollywood and had a thick Swedish accent

His lines were originally intended to be dubbed over, but in the end, Goddard decided to use Dolph's real voice

I've been looking for you. Masters of the Universe also introduced audiences to Friends star Courtney Cox

It was her first big role. Meg Foster was cast as Evil Lynn, and her costume weighed so much it often left her in bruises at the end of the day

The heavy costume is also why Evil Lynn is never seen sitting down. Frank Langello was cast as Skeletor, and he freaking crushes in it

Seriously, his acting is so good he makes this stupid laser whip look threatening

Frank Langello was actually very involved in the filmmaking process. He even helped add and rewrite Skeletor's dialogue to make it more theatrical and possess more gravitas

Tell me about the loneliness of good, E-Man. Frank also later said that Skeletor was one of his favorite roles at the time

His son was a huge fan of He-Man. The character Gwildor was created to replace the character of Orko from the cartoon

The actor who played Blade in the film, Anthony DeLongis, was also the swordmaster on the film

He taught Dolph Lundgren to fight using a broadsword and doubled as Skeletor during the film's climax

All of the character designs for the film were created by Ralph McQuarrie, who was the man responsible for creating the looks of many iconic Star Wars characters

C-3PO, R2-D2, Chewbacca, and Darth Vader were all designed by him. Skeletor's mask was later reused in Star Trek The Next Generation

as a creature Worf fights on the holodeck. Towards the end of production, the film was running out of money

Gary Goddard eventually had to sink his entire salary into the production to get the film finished

The final fight at the end of the film was set in total darkness as a cost-saving technique. Having He-Man and Skeletor face off in the dark would eliminate the need for extras

Ultimately, the film was not received well. It underperformed at the box office, and was seen as a failure for many years

That didn't stop canon from greenlining a sequel, though. They rolled right into production on Masters of the Universe 2

They blamed the film's failure on Dolph Lundgren's performance, not to mention the fact that Dolph was becoming a pretty expensive actor to have around

They recast He-Man with surfer Laird Hamilton. Director Albert Pion was brought in to make Masters of the Universe 2 on a shoestring budget

Thankfully, we were all spared a further big-screen butchering of the franchise, and the film was canceled

The movie was rewritten, and the existing sets and costumes would later be used to create the Jean-Claude Van Damme film disaster, Cyborg

Masters of the Universe's lackluster performance at the box office failed to generate any momentum for the franchise

and stores were overstocked with He-Man merch that nobody wanted to buy. He-Man would be taken out of production and lay dormant until..

Fall of 1990, The New Adventures of He-Man premiered. The new show was designed to be a continuation of the 1980s cartoon

but featured some updates to the way some of the characters looked. The most controversial element of New Adventures is Skeletor's design

He originally looked like a child's drawing of the Green Goblin. Fans didn't like it, so, five episodes into the show

Skeletor mutates, and his character was completely redesigned into something that looks like Ghost Rider and Galactus

had a baby that they didn't want. Fans didn't like that either, but they wouldn't get a third attempt at a redesign The decision to bring Masters of the Universe away from its barbarian roots and into a technologically advanced future was poorly received by fans The new Adventures of He was considered to be the

death of Masters of the Universe. Feeling alienated by the powers that be

fans of He-Man took to the internet and formed a community on the website he-man.org

It was headed up by a man named Val Staples and would serve as the primary hub for fans

of Masters of the Universe. The community organized and used the power of meaningless

petitions to try to get Mattel to greenlight a comic book adaptation of the original Masters of the Universe. Mattel refused to license the

property. In 2002, Masters of the Universe would get a reboot on Cartoon Network's Toonami Block

The new show was based on the new toy designs created by Sculpting Collective and former

McFarlane toy designers The Four Horsemen. Seen as a return to form for Masters of the Universe

the toys and show became wildly popular with fans. Aware of the maturing fan base

the new Masters of the Universe featured darker and more adult storylines. It was exactly what

the franchise needed. Season 2 of the show saw Skeletor take a backseat as the show's

primary antagonist and introduced a new arch-villain for He-Man, King Hiss and

his army of snake men. Season 2 also gave us an episode fleshing out the history

of Castle Grayskull by providing an origin story for King Devon Grayskull

who was essentially just a more muscular He-Man with a cooler mullet. Oh, and the He-Man

website founder dude, Val Staples. Well, he eventually got his wish, and Mattel

tapped him to create a comic book relaunch of the Masters of the Universe. He would go on

to write some of the best He-Man stories ever written. The new comics were published by CrossGen Comics, a subsidiary of Marvel Comics. They went

on to publish two miniseries and a series of one-shot comics, one of which was a Beastman

origin story written by the creators of The Walking Dead, Robert Kirkman, and Tony Moore

It is the only lessons work the two have ever done together outside of TWD. The attempted reboot

started strong, but ultimately puttered out. He-Man was canceled yet again and would lay dormant for

another 15 years. In 2018, Netflix launched She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. To bring the cartoon

up to modern standards, the show rewrote She-Ra's rise to power as a result of her own heroism and initiative

rather than He-Man's. The show was a success and proved that there was a lot more gas in the Masters of the Universe's

tank, which led to a big-budget live-action version of Masters of the Universe entering free production

The film's script was written by David S. Goyer, who wrote Batman Begins. The franchise's volatile history at the box office

ultimately caused the studio to panic, and the film wouldn't receive funding

Goyer left the project. Character designer Carlos Huante released some designs of what the aesthetic of the film would have been

And boy, oh boy, look at that Skeletor. Let's hope this ends up getting made somehow

The next iteration of He-Man and the Masters is slated for release on Netflix, Masters of the Universe Revelation

It's a direct sequel to the original series. It is being directed by Kevin Smith and animated by Powerhouse Animation Studios

The Vampire Diaries star, Chris Wood, will voice Prince Adam, and Mark Hamill will be Skeletor

There's also a family-friendly origin cartoon in the works as well. It's about a young prince who will discover the power

to become He-Man, master of the universe. Mattel has also recently released new Masters of the Universe action figures

through their online subscription-based MOTU Classic Spanner. Don't lose hope for a live-action film either

There's still a lot of interest in bringing Masters of the Universe to the big screen, and Disney star Noah Centineo is said to be in talks to play Prince Adam

The script has been written by Matt Holloway of Men in Black International, and is said to be directed by Adam and Aaron Nee of Band of Robbers

There are quite a few internet rumors that Sony is debating forgoing a theatrical release

for this big-budget live-action adaptation and releasing it straight to Netflix as well

so the Masters of the Universe saga is far from over. There you have it

100 facts about Masters of the Universe