Artist MATT FERGUSON tells us the story behind his fandom, his amazing “Masters of the Universe” MOVIE POSTER (and teases there is more stuff coming!)

Last month, He-Man fans were absolutely thrilled when we surfaced a brand new “Masters of the Universe” Movie poster.

First publicly revealed to us at a press junket in Los Angeles, California… Amazon MGM Studios gave HE-MANIA.COM the permission to take the below video of this amazing new art poster (and share it) that was signed by cast members and soon to be awarded as contest prizes.

When we shared the poster, the reaction was fantastic. Many in the community declared it as the best “Masters of the Universe” Movie Poster yet.

While we didn’t know the artist at the time, we quickly learned it was Matt Ferguson.

Matt is an artist & designer working in the film industry designing movie posters, including key artwork for Predator Badlands, official Star Wars promotional posters and much more. He is the co-founder and Creative Director of Vice Press. He has also had exhibitions at galleries in the US & UK including working with Bottleneck Gallery and is well known in the industry for his beautifully stylised creations for established Film and TV properties.

And now Matt has added the “Masters of the Universe” Movie to his impressive resume… and he graciously took some time to let HE-MANIA.COM know about the story behind his amazing poster, and his personal He-Man fandom.

Check it out:

Were you a Masters of the Universe fan (growing up)? What was the introduction to the brand?

MATT FERGUSON: I was a fan growing up! I’m slightly too young to remember the first wave of He-Man madness, being born in 1983. But I think the cartoon got reruns here in the UK, because I can remember watching it religiously, pretty sure it had double bills with Scooby-Doo. I’ve got two older brothers who had a lot of the toys and I got their hand me downs. I was obsessed with Whiplash and Buzz-Off. I just loved those toys so much. I remember paying a friends brother £10 for his entire collection and so while the rest of my universe was going Turtles mad I was Transformers & He-Man mad.

Can you tell us the story behind the poster? What was your reaction to first getting the assignment?

MATT FERGUSON: So I’d been following the development of the film, being a fan of the property. But also because I’m a huge fan of Travis Knight. I think Kubo & The Two Strings is a masterpiece. Anyway, after the first trailer hit I shared it online  and made it known I’d LOVE to make a poster for the film. Pretty much the next day I got a message and was working on the film from that point. I was so stoked! One of my favourite films ever is Flash Gordon (actually I was born at home because of that film, but I digress). And when I saw the final cut of the film I could feel that Flash DNA in there. So it was maximum excitement. 

Can you discuss your artistic process and how long did it take to complete it?

MATT FERGUSON: So the process on this one was so much fun. I got to see the wip of the film, to get a feel for it. The brief was “you’re a fan, so make what you’d like to see”. A couple of rough layouts later along with some back and forth with the studio and we had a poster. Lots of 80s rock on while I worked on this, I wanted to try and evoke the soundtrack with the art, that rock and roll swagger the film has. We were all in agreement it should also have the feeling of an old 80s illustrated poster but filtered through a modern sensibility. I wanted everything AND the kitchen sink on the art, but later pared it back a bit to make it more streamlined, I had a bunch more stuff & characters on there but it was perhaps too much. When I came up with Adam being on the poster twice, the small one and then full blown He-Man at the centre of it, that’s when it came together for me. It has that element of storytelling which I think is important for a movie poster, because it’s kind of showing him transform and everyone else is looking to him to be the hero. All in I was working on this film about 3 months on and off? I did some other work as well as the poster and there’s some more stuff coming, so it was a big project!

Once you were able to reveal the poster to the public, were you pleased with the reaction?

MATT FERGUSON: The reaction has been so great! It’s always nerve wracking to put something out into the world. Especially when it’s for a property like this with such devoted fans (me included). So to see so many positive comments and people loving the poster, wanting to get a copy etc. Honestly it’s the best feeling.

Did you enjoy the film?

MATT FERGUSON: I LOVE it. I feel like it was made for me specifically. It’s like Travis Knight & crew peered directly into my brain and made my dream He-Man film. This kind of exciting camp, romp is my favourite sort of movie. It’s just so much fun.

We would like to thank Matt Ferguson for not only being part of “Masters of the Universe” history, but chatting with us a bit about his amazing new poster.

Be sure to follow the profile of Matt Ferguson on Instagram and be sure to check out his link section as well.

We’ll see you next time!