Should Skeletor Die In The Movie?

[Mr. Shokoti]

It seems that most of the time we have a movie based on a genre franchise, they kill off the villain. Sometimes it's because the people behind the movie don't have as much love for the franchise as the original fans do and it could also be because, without the guarantee of a sequel, they want to give the movie closure. After seeing 1987's Masters Of The Universe movie in the theatres, I didn't even know Skeletor survived until I re-watched it again on cable(my parents never stayed through the credits when I was a kid). If we finally get a new MOTU movie, do you want to see Skeletor die at the end?

[boggs32]

skeletor can always make a come back as a villain, even if you kill him off and it can make sense... unlike Jason V or Michael Myers. Nonetheless, I say kill him off in the first one, bring Hordak in for number two. Bring Skeletor in to end 2 and then bring skeletor, hiss and Hordak in for the trilogy. That's just the way I want to see it... but what do I know

[Midwinter]

Skeletor should not die at the end.

There should be a musical number where Adam and Skeletor meet at a bar and Ram-Man shows up for comical relief though.

[boggs32]

actually, I take that all back.... KELDOR should "die" at the end, then the other stuff I said should happen.

[Wacky Martin]

Keep him alive I say, it's become a cliche to kill off the villain in movies these days - the Spider-Man films are terrible for this.

They can always have him 'appear' to die at the end, and just ressurrect him in the second, but you can't have a MOTU movie without Skeletor, imo.

[Torvik]

Kill off Skeletor!

You WEREN'T kidding??

Absolutely not.. He-Man without his Arch Villain?? Preposterous! (though I am hardly objective, us Old Sorcerers have to stick together, you know!)

[Darth Latveria]

Not in the first one. He should narrowly escape, but the heroes can think he is dead. Like a cave-in or something. But it should be clear to the audience that he is alive.

If it makes it to sequels, he should be in the background of the second movie which should feature the Snakemen. Hiss should die in that.

Then in the third movie he should make a big return with his old master, Hordak, which is when both he and Hordak should die to close out the trilogy.

[krosfyah]

Not in the first one. He should narrowly escape, but the heroes can think he is dead. Like a cave-in or something. But it should be clear to the audience that he is alive.

If it makes it to sequels, he should be in the background of the second movie which should feature the Snakemen. Hiss should die in that.

Then in the third movie he should make a big return with his old master, Hordak, which is when both he and Hordak should die to close out the trilogy.

I agree he should be presumed dead by the heroes and the audience, I wouldn't mind a hint that he's not dead at the end of the credits.

[hhhelmsley]

Keep Skeletor Alive.

[Captain Atkin]

Skeletor is like the Joker to He-Man's Batman. He should never die.

[Midwinter]

It could be that you think Skeletor is dead at the end of the movie and then after the credits you see the following scene:

Skeletor is barely holding on to life laying on the ground when a familiar webbed foot design comes in to camera. The foot taps Skeletor's nearly lifeless body and then you hear in the familiar pig like voice of Hordak, "We will bring a force to Eternia - that not even you can stop He-Man "oink" "oink"."

[MegaGearMax]

Everyone should believe he's dead at the end of the movie, only to be revealed to have survived death in the credits or an epilogue.

You obviously can't kill Skeletor off, but you have to have a resolution to the story. I don't think sending Skeletor off to jail works these days. Banishing him to another dimension is letting him runamuck somewhere else.

[wyldman11]

The problem is if the villain keeps just escaping even narrowly it starts to become that old cliche that so many make fun of now based on their losing faith in the hero of the franchise to put a stop to the villain.

They have even learned this in many comics a handful of villains have died and haven't returned yet (some over a decade ago), others are left out of the story for several years.

But on the other hand extended serial formats such as comics and (animated) television shows need either constantly new villains or for old villains to return to keep the story going. Movies do work in a completely different way though as most movies never really get a sequel and even within the ~two hour frame of a film you can have many near apprehensions or actual apprehensions to have them get away. The Dark Knight is an example of this.

Killing off Skeletor, it depends on what kind of story they end up going with and how his potential escape could potentially change the tone of the film. His escape would probably play out differently in something more like the (early)minicomics then either of the animated series for example.

I don't think he should outright die, I think the best thing to do is let the story dictate what you have to do. The problem I see in many of the movies today is they write towards killing off the villain(s) instead of letting the story decide whether they should live or die.

[wallbie]

Even if they went through the route of killing Skeletor off, they can probably work it to show him survive at the beginning of the second movie. I'd prefer Skeletor doesn't die though.

[Grimbot]

That would be like killing Darth Vader in Star wars 4.

[Killian]

They can't kill Skeletor off too early on in the movies. I think it's fine to have Skeletor appear to die but survive, or be killed if there's a plot development that lets us know he will be resurrected.

Save his permanent death for the 30th movie

[King Tycho]

Killing Skeletor would be like killing lex luthor in a superman movie.

[bskcase]

I have to agree with the majority. What good would sequels be without Skeletor?

[Darth Latveria]

Looking at my earlier post in here, it also strikes me that I would be okay with his dying in an ambiguous manner with no hint given to the audience in the first movie.

The ambiguousness of it allows him to come back later, which I feel is essential as he should have some sort of role in later movies. But the lack of a hint would allow the movie to stand on its own if there is no sequel made and let us feel that it was a completed story.

[dwanyewest]

If it became successful sequels theres only so many times people are gonna watch He-man fight same bad guys. What about in the sequels he could fight King Hiss or Hordark or Count Marzo. People have complained villains die in superhero movies but well thats cause the directors know there is lots of cool villains they can use with Batman for example if they don't use the Joker they
have Catwoman, Two Face etc. There is only so many times people would wanna watch a superhero fight the SAME villian sequel after sequel.

[Dave-Man]

It seems that most of the time we have a movie based on a genre franchise, they kill off the villain. Sometimes it's because the people behind the movie don't have as much love for the franchise as the original fans do and it could also be because, without the guarantee of a sequel, they want to give the movie closure. After seeing 1987's Masters Of The Universe movie in the theatres, I didn't even know Skeletor survived until I re-watched it again on cable(my parents never stayed through the credits when I was a kid). If we finally get a new MOTU movie, do you want to see Skeletor die at the end?

Isn't he sort-of dead to start with? I mean, he does have a disembodied skull for a head. He could easily appear to die in the first movie, and then show up again later with the revelation that he is, in fact, undead and has been ever since his transformation from Keldor.

[Darth Latveria]

Isn't he sort-of dead to start with? I mean, he does have a disembodied skull for a head. He could easily appear to die in the first movie, and then show up again later with the revelation that he is, in fact, undead and has been ever since his transformation from Keldor.

Do all versions of Skelly have a disembodied skull?

[Mr. Shokoti]

Do all versions of Skelly have a disembodied skull?

Imo, that was just a shortcut in the art. Never once did he do something like hold his head or throw it. If his head was truly disembodied, I'm sure that Filmation would have done something like that.

If he was undead, he'd be undefeatable. That would make He-Man useless in his fight to vanquish evil.

[Dave-Man]

Not all Undead are undefeatable. Usually an undead being has at least one weakness - like Imhotep's fear of cats and his vulnerability to ancient Egyptian spells (as seen in the 1999 version of The Mummy.) Skeletor could be vulnerable to the forces unleashed by Castle Grayskull - which is both why he wants to own it, and why He-man is the enemy he fears the most.

[Lion-O]

I don't think Skeletor should die in the first film. Maybe fake his death, but if we're lucky enough to get a trilogy, I don't want him dead until the end.