Jean-Claude Van Damme accidentally wounded Jackson 'Rock' Pinckney's eye during a swordfight scene, permanently blinding him in that eye. He took Van Damme to court, and eventually won a settlement.
This was the last official theatrical release for Cannon Films after going bankrupt in 1987.
Albert Pyun's original cut of "Cyborg" was a two hour, black-and-white, rock opera that was much darker and more violent. Jean-Claude Van Damme's dialogue, including extensive narration, was dubbed by another actor. Cannon held a test screening of that version for an audience of 100. Of the 100 surveyors, 99 of them said they hated the film. As a result, Pyun was kicked out of post production. Van Damme convinced Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus to give him and his producer friend, Sheldon Lettich, two months to re-edit the film (as he previously done with "Bloodsport") and make it more commercial. This also started a trend where several of Pyun's later films were taken away from him and re-cut by the studio.
Vincent Klyn (Fender) in real life has a higher pitched voice. The first cut of the movie used his real voice. In its test screening, the audience laughed at Fender's scenes. They found it funny that an imposing figure has a high-pitched voice. Afterwards, it was decided to make his voice deeper and all of Vincent's lines were dubbed over by Branscombe Richmond.
This film was conceived to use the costumes and sets built for a Masters of the Universe (1987) sequel and a live action Spider-Man film. Albert Pyun had planned to shoot both projects simultaneously. Cannon Films had to cancel deals with Mattel and Marvel because of their financial troubles, and they needed to recoup the money spent on both projects. Pyun created the film's script, under the pseudonym of Kitty Chalmers, using two previous scripts, "Johnny Guitar" and "Alex Rain". Some network television channels still list the film's title as "Masters of the Universe 2: Cyborg."