David S. Goyer’s He-Man was a more colorful & fantastical Lord of the Rings

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

A week or so ago, we let you guys know that the planned reboot of HE-MAN and MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE will begin principal photography in Prague come mid-July. And back in April of last year, we passed along word that the producers had replaced director David S. Goyer with directing team Aaron and Adam Nee (BAND OF ROBBERS). This reboot stands as the brothers' first foray into the world of big-budget studio filmmaking.

But whatever happened to Goyer's version and why was he replaced? Well, today we have the story from creature designer and former ILM artist Carlos Huante (ALIEN: COVENANT, PROMETHEUS) who says he worked on Goyer's script for several weeks and it was like a more colorful and fantastical version of a LORD OF THE RINGS film. But in the end, the planned movie was too big for the studio and they didn’t want to fund it.

So Goyer quit. 

Here's the specific story Huante tells of David S. Goyer's MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE:

I worked on it for several weeks and the script that Goyer had, he was directing and he wrote the script, was great I actually thought it was really good, which I don’t say that often. This one was fun and it made the world more fantastic than I thought it could go. It felt arty and fantastical at the same time. The director’s script was big and the studio didn’t want to fund that movie and so the director quit…He was great [Goyer] I loved where he was going with that story it was great fun, but once that went away we got let go too.

He continues:

I’m not going to talk too much about it [in great detail], I know they’re making it still but I’ll tell you it was… just the story of Greyskull and that sort of thing and there was some really cool stuff in there. I don’t think they’re gonna make that version. I know they’re not going to, it was like a Lord of The Rings film, it was huge! And there was all kinds of stuff in there, you could have divided up that script into three movies and it would have worked. That’s how big it was. I would have loved to have spent a lot of time on that one. It was a more fantastic version of Lord of The Rings, is what I’ll say. It’s a more colorful and fantastical version of Lord of The Rings, but it felt as real as Lord of The Rings. It was very real but very far-out. It was a final return to science fiction fantasy where we’ve only had one, Star Wars.

And finally he adds: 

They screwed-up by not allowing Goyer to make it in my opinion. it was a slam-dunk money maker.

How do you feel about this MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE reboot? Would you rather see David S. Goyer's LORD OF THE RINGS version? Who would YOU like to see cast as He-Man and/or Skeletor? Make sure to hit us up and let us know in the comments below or on social media!

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE (1987) synopsis:

When the evil Skeletor (Frank Langella) finds a mysterious power called the Cosmic Key, he becomes nearly invincible. However, courageous warrior He-Man (Dolph Lundgren) locates inventor Gwildor (Billy Barty), who created the Key and has another version of it. During a battle, one of the Keys is transported to Earth, where it is found by teenagers Julie (Courteney Cox) and Kevin (Robert Duncan McNeill). Now both He-Man and Skeletor's forces arrive on Earth searching for the potent weapon.

The 1987 version was directed by Gary Goddard from a screenplay written by David Odell based on He-Man and the Masters of the Universe by Mattel. Yoram Globus, Menahem Golan, and Edward R. Pressman produced and the film starred Dolph Lundgren, Frank Langella, Courteney Cox, James Tolkan, Christina Pickles, Meg Foster, and Robert Duncan McNeill. Goyer is still the writer and executive producer of the new MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE, which is set to kick all the ass off your eyeballs on December 18, 2019. Wait… THIS December? We'll see about that…