Director Albert Pyun had planned to film a sequel to 'Masters of the Universe' (with professional surfer Laird John Hamilton replacing Dolph Lundgren as He-Man) at the same time as Spider-Man. Right before filming was to begin, Mattel and Marvel revoked the rights to both properties due to non-payment by Cannon Films. Cannon was reaching their end as a company at the time, as a result of the 1987 stock market crash on junk bonds (which Cannon had used extensively to finance films) and poor overall financial management. In order to recoup some of the money spent on sets, costumes and props from both intended films, Cannon had Pyun quickly get a script written, Cyborg, for one of Cannon's promising new action stars, Jean-Claude Van Damme; although Pyun had Cannon regular, Chuck Norris, in mind to star at first. There has been some confusion over the years in some TV listings for Cyborg, with it being billed as 'Masters of the Universe 2: Cyborg'. This lead some to speculate that the script for the proposed sequel had been rewritten for Cyborg. In reality it was due to the connection of both productions during the demise of the Cannon Films studio.