When it comes to writing music for sci-fi films, Brian May has a fair bit of history. As part of Queen, he played a crucial role in creating the soundtrack for Flash Gordon, the camp classic from 1980, and the band also provided several songs for the original Highlander film, which was released in 1986.
May has now returned to the land of fantasy by contributing to the soundtrack of the new Masters Of The Universe movie, and Travis Knight, the movie’s director, says that he always had Queen in mind when it was being created.
"The big musical touchstone was Flash Gordon," he tells Polygon. "I loved Flash Gordon as a kid and I think one of the many reasons was that incredible, iconic score that Queen famously did. It was amazing. It had such joy, such spirit, such theatricality – this operatic, larger than life feel – but it also had real sincerity at its core.”
Knight says that, having been delighted when May agreed to be part of the project, he would have been grateful to get just a couple of hours with him. However, he and his team – including Daniel Pemberton, the film’s composer, presumably – actually ended up spending a whole day at his house.
“We're in Brian May's home recording studio, and I'm just sitting there watching him on his Red Special playing with his sixpence,” he recalls. “It was a surreal moment."
Not quite as surreal, though, as the moment that came at the end of the day, when May paid a visit to his loft.
"At the end of the session, he disappears," says Knight. "I thought he was just tired, but then he shows up a handful of minutes later and he's carrying two giant boxes of He-Man toys that he still had in his attic from his son Jimmy. He put them on the ground in his recording studio. He pulled out the characters. He knew who they were. It was a crazy bizarro moment for me to be sitting there with Brian May as he's talking about Skeletor and Man-E-Faces. It was so weird and also so cool."
Whether May actually started playing with the toys isn’t confirmed, but we can only hope that he did, and that the words ‘By the power of Grayskull, I have the power!’ passed his lips from time to time.
Speaking of Masters Of The Universe lore, in a separate interview with Variety, Daniel Pemberton says that, as he watched May getting busy on his Red Special, it called to mind He-Man wielding his own mighty weapon.
“As he was playing it, I was like, ‘This is actually the equivalent of the Sword of Power from the Master universe because it’s an instrument forged in flame,’ so to speak,” he remembers. “He’s the only person who can play it and has the power to play it, and it’s a tool that has saved many people’s lives, I think. If you look at it as a weapon, it has put so much hope and love in the world.”
You can hear May’s playing on Eternia, the opening theme from Masters of the Universe, which Pemberton says was designed to let the audience know exactly what they’re in for.
“I wanted something that had the weight and seriousness of a hard-rock track mixed with the color, campiness and slight cheese of a poppy Euro song,” he confirms. “The influences around were very pop-driven. I wanted it to have that sensibility that as soon as you start the movie, it tells you you’re in for something fun. That’s the most important thing about this film – it’s unashamedly fun.”
