Arnold Schwarzenegger signed up for a glorified cameo as a favor to producer Dino De Laurentiis. Much to his surprise, he was on the set for four weeks, three weeks longer than expected. He discovered after watching a rough cut of the movie that his role had been expanded to co-star, thanks to crafty angles and multiple cameras. Soon after, Schwarzenegger decided to terminate his 10-year contract with De Laurentiis.
Arnold Schwarzenegger eschews this movie as one of his worst, yet he (laughingly) claims that it's an excellent disciplinary tool for his children. "I tell them, if they get on my bad side, they'll be forced to watch Red Sonja (1985) ten times in a row. It must be working, because none of my kids has ever given me much trouble."
Maria Shriver said in a TV interview that at the premiere, she remarked to her then-husband, Arnold Schwarzenegger, "If this doesn't kill your career, nothing will."
Arnold Schwarzenegger's character originally was intended to be a reprisal of Conan, star of the comic book in which Red Sonja first appeared, but the film did not have the rights to this name. An unofficial explanation endorsed by fans is that Kalidor is one of Conan's "traveling names", a common feature of multi-national mythical/legendary heroes such as Zeus (a.k.a. Jupiter) and J.R.R. Tolkien's Gandalf (a.k.a. Mithrandir).