By Chris Snellgrove | Updated
Tonight, I left the theater with a big smile on my face. To my surprise and surprise, the new Masters of the Universe it was perfect the explosion: brought the original He-Man cartoon to life with vivid performance, dynamic designs, and seemingly endless action. As an added bonus, the movie kept old school fans' heads spinning from start to finish. Why is that? Because of all the Easter eggs!
Basically, this new movie is a love letter to all things He-Man, new and old. Therefore, almost every scene is filled with homages to different decades of the franchise. There are too many honors to list, and even if I didn't, we'd be here all day. To save us both some time, I packed mine favorite Easter eggs; those made me want to pull out my Castle Grayskull playset and start organizing all my old toys. Ready for your own “good trip?” Read on for the coolest fan service Easter eggs Masters of the World!
Toys For Men
Surprisingly, a large nexus of unpleasant Easter eggs in between Masters of the Universe the comic and collectibles shop where Prince Adam goes to find his magic sword. The store is named The Fright Zone, which is actually a tribute to He-Man's sister, She-Ra. He fights a villain named Hordak, and works in a terrifying city known as the Fright Zone.
The store's interior also prominently displays Big Jim's toys. Big Jim was a Mattel product name that came out long before He-Man. In fact, one of Big Jim's toy designs was also adapted into Cringer, who He-Man occasionally transforms into Battle Cat. In the end, Prince Adam must grab the sword out of the hands of a life-sized barbarian. That alien may look like Conan, but he's actually Torak, a character created by franchise designer Mark Taylor. Later, the design of this character was changed to He-Man, which means that our hero had to fight for the power sword!
It's The Pig Man, Jerry (And Friends)
Once upon a time Masters of the UniverseSkeletor is a pig man. His appearance made my wife lean over to him and say the Seinfeld quote we share all the time in my house: “you're a pig man, Jerry, a pig man with a twist!” Later, I told him that this boy's appearance was a miraculous Easter egg. The first one Masters of the Universe The film held a contest for one lucky fan to appear in the lead, and young Richard Szponder was able to play the role of the diminutive Pigboy.
In fact, he is one of the few actors from the 1987 movie to make a cameo in Masters of the Universe. Another character is Karg, the kind of animal-faced guy who would benefit from some Just For Men. But the coolest cameo from the original movie is the appearance of original He-Man actor Dolph Lundgren. He pokes fun at new He-Man actor Nicholas Galitzine (“he's here to take my place!”), offers sage advice, and even says goodbye with the previous film's odd farewell phrase: “Have a nice trip!”
The last great honor is the first Masters of the Universe the movie is also very good. At one point in the new film, Skeletor appears as a hologram in the sky, issuing a challenge to the newly emerged He-Man. This is a reference to the Easter Egg in the first movie, where Frank Langella's Skeletor spreads his message across Eternia. While Langella is an all-time great, Jared Leto deserves credit for making his sky hologram look the scariest (and, let's be honest), the most amazing.
Kneeling Before the Lady
While new Masters of the Universe it has the tonal silliness of similar movies Thor: Ragnarokit still tries to be a focused version of the original Bonkers cartoon. That left the writers and producers with a different challenge: how do you have grown men and women who go by names originally mentioned in the toyline and in the animated series? The film sidesteps this issue by revealing that Prince Adam gave nicknames to everyone he knew (like “Fisto” for a guy with a big fist, and “Ram Man” for, uh, a man with a goatee). He even gave himself the nickname “He-Man,” representing his desire to be a man.
One of Teela's most confusing code names, the sheep Adam admits to calling her “warrior goddess.” The film jokingly plays this as a sign of the young man's focus on the woman's strength and beauty. However, this is a meta easter egg that refers to the He-Man minicomics that came packaged with the toys before the cartoon came out. At that time, there was no separate Witch character, so Teela was a character the original a warrior goddess who roamed Eternia, counting down the days until she would rule over Castle Grayskull.
Killer Post-Credits Easter Eggs (Spoilers Ahead Here; Be Warned!)
Okay, I hate to interrupt your wonderful trip, but let's make one thing clear: there is big spoilers from now on. Masters of the Universe it has two mid-credits scenes and one post-credits scene, all of which offer strong hints about where this franchise is going next. If you haven't seen the movie yet and wish to remain unspoiled, hit that back button. If not, read on to find the Easter eggs hidden in these scenes!
The first “mid” credits scene takes place almost immediately. It features Orko, the red-robed wizard from the cartoon, who tells us what lessons Prince Adam learned in the movie. On a broader level, this mid-credits scene serves as a reminder that Orko will likely appear in any and all of the following. But his appearance also refers to the original He-Man cartoon, which always had Orko tell the main lesson of the story. Filmmaking added these public service announcement-style messages to appease networks, parents, and other critics who objected to the idea of making a TV show just to sell toys.
The final, post-credits scene shows Evil-Lyn finding Skeletor's severed head; between this and his signature cackle, we know he's still alive, which is likely an homage to the original Masters of the Universe with its post-credits scene, which revealed that Skeletor was still alive. While that's a fun Easter egg in itself, it's also fun to remember that the first He-Man movie did some universe-changing post-credits scenes. 21 years before the first MCU movie ever hits theaters!
None of this is as interesting as the mid-credits scene, which features She-Ra, He-Man's cousin, preparing to fight the Evil Horde, who have brainwashed him. Her appearance here is a bit of a surprise because He-Man is owned by Mattel, and She-Ra (at least, when it comes to film and television) is owned by Dreamworks. Companies rarely get along, which is why He-Man doesn't appear on DreamWorks She-Ra series and She-Ra does not appear (not a physical object, anyway) in Kevin Smith's He-Man cartoons. Now, it seems the companies have reached a Disney/Sony-style deal, and DreamWorks is finally happy to let She-Ra loose in the world of live-action sci-fi.
