The only way Daniel Pemberton, who elects not to work on many franchise films or sequels, was going to get on board with scoring the new “Masters of the Universe” film was if he could create Queen and ABBA-inspired music.
Thankfully, not only was that the exact sound director Travis Knight wanted, but while recording some of the early “Masters of the Universe” tracks at Abbey Road Studios in London, Pemberton happened to run into Queen co-founder and guitarist Brian May, who was working on a newly mastered version of “Queen II.” After telling him about the project, May was enthusiastic to collaborate with the “Project Hail Mary” composer.
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Musically, everything in the studio clicked into place when May pulled out his famous Red Special Guitar, which he built out of repurposed household materials as a teenager and used in Queen’s live performances.
“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,” Pemberton tells Variety of the crucial guitar amp featured in the film’s triumphant theme song. “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.”
