TV URBAN LEGEND: There was nearly a sequel to the original Masters of the Universe series in the late 1980s starring He-Man and Skeletor's sons fighting each other.
Happy Father's Day, everyone! It nicely worked out that today's legend involves fathers and their sons! Well, at least it involves father and their ALMOST sons.
As I'm sure you're aware by now, Masters of the Universe, the cartoon series that tied in with Mattel's toy line of the same name, following the adventures of the heroic He-Man and his allies versus the villainous Skeletor and his minions set against the backdrop of the mystical planet known as Eternia was a big deal in the mid-1980s. Like, a REALLY big deal.
However, if you've followed pretty much any major fad over the years, something like Pokemon, which just continually cycles through a new audience of young kids every years, is the major exception rather than the norm. What typically happens is best described as a supernova fad, in that a fad burns SUPER bright and then fades out. That's what happened to He-Man in the mid-1980s. The Masters of the Universe toy line took in $400 million for Mattel in 1986. In 1987? It took in $7 million!
Now, did Mattel make some mistakes along the way? I'm sure, who doesn't? They probably oversaturated the market with aggressive production ("forcing" stores to buy the new wave of He-Man toys while stores still had the previous wave not yet sold), but, really, what toy company doesn't do that? The bigger deal is that it simply seems like kids abruptly moved on to, like Thundercats or Transformers or whatever. Kids are fickle little creatures, after all.
So naturally, Mattel realized, "Okay, we need to take a break here," so they let the original syndicated Filmation He-Man cartoon series come to a close in 1988 (USA Network then licensed the series to continue to air on their channel only), but then they made plans to make a comeback. Eventually, that comeback was the 1990 animated series, The New Adventures of He-Man, where a slimmed down He-Man traveled to another world to have more science-fiction centric adventures...
Skeletor was along for the ride, as well, as the accompanied toy line was simply "He-Man"...
What became The New Adventures of He-Man, though, originated in a pitch by Filmation for a much different sequel series that would have starred the SONS of He-Man and Skeletor battling it out in the distant future!
The brilliant Masters of the Universe expert Danielle Gelehrter gave the lowdown on the proposed series back in 2014 when the series pitch was revealed after a number of years.
Geleherter explained, "The story begins on Eternia. He-Man and Teela, who now rule Eternia, bear a son....Meanwhile, another boy is born to the evil Skeletor and... Shadow Weaver!... It is made clear in the bible that, while Skeletor is evil, he has paternal feelings for his son and wants to protect him.
Shortly after the birth of these children, a new threat surfaces on Eternia. In a turn of events very reminiscent of Superman, Eternia becomes endangered by an "evil force" which threatens to consume and destroy the entire planet. In an effort to save the infant son of He-Man and Teela, Man-At-Arms and Orko work together (for once) by combining technology and magic to build a spaceship called, The Javelon. The accompanying illustration of the Javelon is essentially Starship Eternia. He-Man uses this ship to send his son far into space and far into the future. Unbeknownst to him, Skeletor has also secretly stowed his own son aboard the ship in order to save the boy’s life."
The baby is found by a man named Darius, who names the child He-Ro. Skeletor's kid is sent to go live in the swamps, where he is raised by swamp creatures. Naturally, then, He-Ro grew up to be a hero and Skeleteen grew up to be a bad dude.
He-Ro's outfit is basically what He-Man wears in New Adventure of He-Man, so obviously this pitch just evolved into that other concept, with the whole other planet deal remaining, only with the two established characters rather than brand-new ones.
Geleherter explains more of the set-up, "Skeleteen has inherited some of his father’s evil power and starts to become a tyrannical threat. As this is going on, He-Ro has a vision. In his vision, he sees his father He-Man who is communicating with him from the past. He-Man has defeated the evil force that once threatened to destroy Eternia and has located his son in order to tell him about his destiny. He-Ro is destined to protect the Tri-Solar system from evil. He-Man explains that He-Ro’s dagger is not an ordinary weapon and that it is magical. He-Ro then holds his dagger aloft and says, “By the Power of the Ancient Masters! I am He-Ro!!!” He is then imbued with great power. He isn’t as strong as He-Man, but he is quite powerful and resourceful in his own right. During the series, he sometimes has to call on his father for help. Meanwhile, Skeletor senses the power surge when He-Man contacts his son and manages to contact Skeleteen as well. Like He-Ro, Skeleteen can contact his dad when he needs help."
Amusingly, Geleherter noted that the He-Man and Skeletor scenes were planned to be done in a live action format for their communications with their sons, but that they would occasionally transform into cartoons to actually help their kids out directly (I think I might have a future legend on another live action concept involving He-Man and Skeletor).
Again, as we noted, Mattel ultimately approved the concept, but with He-Man and Skeletor instead of their kids.
Years later, Lou Scheimer Productions had ANOTHER pitch for a similar concept, only set on Eternia and with all of the original He-Man characters involved, just starring He-Ro and Skeleteen as the new main characters.
The legend is...
STATUS: True
Thanks to Danielle Gelehrter for the information!
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