Dolph Lundgren as He-Man in 'Masters of The Universe' Designed by Julie Weiss

Costume consisting of a brown leather body harness with bronze-colored composite material serpent medallion at chest; elaborate brown composite shoulder guards; floor-length burgundy cape with gold leather trim; two leather and brass upper arm straps; burgundy suede shorts ornamented with brass lion heads; brown leather belt with brass buckle; wide leather brown belt with serpent buckle; two brown leather upper-leg straps; pair of bronze composite material knee guards; pair of bronze composite leg guards; pair of brown leather boots; elaborate bronze composite material gauntlets; leather and brass sword scabbard and brown G-string.

Dolph Lundgren, whose only previous acting role was of the Russian fighter, Drago, in Rocky IV was cast as He-Man. He was to be an old-fashioned guy. An ambassador of everything good who saves the day. His lack of acting skills were mostly panned by the critics, but they might have also contributed to the down to earth performance versus the hammed-up performance that other actors might have given. His athleticism made his wielding of the Sword of Grayskull seem graceful. There was some concern if he could carry the film with his heavy Swedish accent that made him hard to understand. There were attempts to do a voice overs of the character but Lundgren was determined to make it work.

The impressive set of Castle Grayskull, was specifically design to accommodate the climatic battle between Skeletor and He-Man, with the characters jumping to different levels of the set. But the production was shut down before the scene was shot. The cast and crew were allowed to come use the set for a few hours but without lighting, so only a few single back lights were used making it impossible to see the expensive set.

Costume designer, Julie Weiss, had mostly done contemporary costumes, so the film was a challenge. Even though the costumes had to be based on the action figures, Weiss was given some freedom to change the designs. To capitalize on Dolph Lundgren’s physique and to stay true to the toy character, he ran around in nothing more than leather bikini briefs, a harness and cape.