Skeletor, the Lord of Destruction, has been He-Man’s primary nemesis since the very first Masters of the Universe action figure wave from Mattel in 1982. And soon, he’ll seek to destroy his arch-nemesis on the big screen, portrayed by Jared Leto, in the upcoming Masters of the Universe live-action film. But like any good arch villain, from Lex Luthor to Magneto, his backstory has shifted and changed quite a bit over the last few decades. With his upcoming live-action portrayal in Travis Knight’s Masters of the Universe film, they’ll have several Skeletor origin stories to choose from.
Skeletor, the Early MOTU Mattel Toys Era (1982)
Before the iconic cartoon, the only story or world-building kids got from the MOTU line came from the mini-comics included with the figures. Writer Donald F. Glut, who wrote several episodes of iconic cartoons like Spider-Man, Transformers, and the novelization ofThe Empire Strikes Back. He came up with the initial character backstory. Skeletor was described as “a demon from another dimension,” who was thrown from his reality into Eternia. This happened during something called “the Great Wars,” which is never elaborated on.
Once stuck on Eternia, Skeletor turned his attention to conquering Castle Grayskull, and stealing its secrets. In some early MOTU tie-ins, like the storybook and records sets, Skeletor’s home planet was called Infinita. But this was quickly forgotten about. In this “Year One” version, Skeletor had his own Power Sword like He-Man’s. That weapon was largely dropped in favor of his demonic-looking Havoc Staff.
Skeletor in He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983-1986)
The cackling, pun-prone version of Skeletor from Filmation’s He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon had almost no backstory, at least at first. He ruled from his throne on Snake Mountain, and had an army of robots and loyal lackies. He single-mindedly had two goals: to take Castle Grayskull, and to defeat He-Man. It was only in 1985’s He-Man and She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword, we learned that Skeletor was once the disciple of Hordak, leader of the Evil Horde on the planet Etheria. When Hordak invaded Eternia, Randor’s army forced the Horde to retreat, abandoning Skeletor on Eternia. It’s a twist on the original backstory of the mini-comics. Only with the added wrinkle of Skeletor being Hordak’s former minion.
The First Hints Emerge of Skeletor as He-Man’s Uncle (1987)
Before the original MOTU line ended in 1987, Mattel added one more wrinkle to Skeletor’s backstory. In the mini-comic “The Search for Kedlor,” we learn that the brother of King Randor, Keldor, disappeared into another dimension years earlier. The comic strongly hinted that Skeltor was Keldor, somehow corrupted. Thus, making Skeletor He-Man’s uncle. When the toyline ended, Mattel dropped that plot thread entirely for a very long time. The 1987 live-action MOTU movie, where Frank Langella played Skeletor, gave us no backstory on Skeletor at all. He was just a scenery-chewing villain.
The New Adventures of He-Man’s Forgotten Skeletor
The 1990 New Adventures of He-Man cartoon gave Skeletor a new look, along with cybernetic enhancements. In this short-lived animated series, Skeletor found himself lost in the far future. In the future, he joins forces with the Evil Mutants of Denebria and their leader, Flogg. He-Man is, of course, also trapped in this future, and the two continue their never-ending battle. At the end of that series, He-Man traps his arch-foe in a shuttlepod in the depths of outer space. It’s technically a continuation of the 1983 Filmation show, but all future sequalizations have basically de-canonized it.
MOTU 200X Canonizes Skeletor as Keldor
The 2002 animated reboot of MOTU revealed that Skeletor was once Keldor, who trained in dark magic thanks to Hordak. When Keldor attacked the Hall of Wisdom (the future Castle Grayskull), he fought Randor, the Prince of Eternia at the time. Keldor threw acid at Randor, but he deflected it back at him, disfiguring his face. Keldor sought out Hordak to save his life, and using dark magic, he transformed him into his current Skeletor form. Had the series been renewed for a third season, the show’s creators later confirmed that Skeletor/Keldor would have been revealed as King Randor’s half-brother.
In the 2012 MOTU DC Comics mini-series, they finally confirmed Keldor as the son of Eternia’s King Miro and a blue-skinned Gar woman. (The Gar were a separate humanoid race that lived in Eternia). Even though he was the elder son, because Randor was a full-blooded human, Miro groomed Randor for the throne. This, of course, was very alienating to Keldor. Decades after a tease going back to a random 1987 mini-comic, MOTU finally confirmed that Keldor was He-Man’s uncle.
Competing 2021 MOTU Cartoons Officially Make Keldor He-Man’s Uncle
In 2021, Netflix introduced two distinct versions of the MOTU. There was the kid-friendly CGI He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, and Masters of the Universe: Revelation. The former was a total reboot, while Revelation was a continuation of the ’80s cartoon (while ignoring the ’90s cartoon). In both of these new takes, their version of Skeletor was formerly Keldor, King Randor’s brother. In the CGI series, Keldor was responsible for banishing Prince Adam as a child. And in Revelation, Skeletor lost his memories of being Randor’s brother. Thus, explaining why he never brought it up in the ’80s cartoon. Will the new movie keep this origin for Skeletor? Or will they even touch on his lineage at all? We’ll have to wait and find out when Masters of the Universe hits theaters on June 5.
The post Exploring the Many Origins of MOTU’s Skeletor appeared first on Nerdist.
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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