If you’ve seen Godzilla: King of the Monsters (read my review), you know that director Michael Dougherty wasn’t screwing around. His film features wall-to-wall monster fights, and in order to make that work he needed monsters. Lots and lots and lots of monsters.
Godzilla fans already know the title titan and his best friends/enemies Rodan, Ghidorah and Mothra, but Godzilla: King of the Monsters features several other giant beasts that aren’t from the original Toho canon. A few may be familiar to fans of Godzilla (2014) and Kong: Skull Island but the majority are all-new creations that Dougherty and his team have added to the franchise.
For example, one of the titans in King of the Monsters is a gigantic mastodon with human-like arms. His name is “Behemoth.”
“That one is named Behemoth, so that’s a biblical reference, and he’s one of the few male creatures,” Michael Dougherty explained to Bloody-Disgusting. “Because they always tend to be insectoid or reptilian or some combination of the two, and I really wanted another big, furry creature that looked like it could have survived during the Ice Age.”
“But yeah, all the creatures have names and little biographies, and all the names are drawn from classic mythology.”
Behemoth may be new, but fans will no doubt be interested to see the return of a familiar face: Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism, aka MUTO, Godzilla’s nemesis from the 2014 film. But wait, wasn’t MUTO destroyed? Is that the same MUTO?
“One of them, or a new one,” Dougherty explained. “Or another female in hibernation.”
Sharp viewers may also recognize the return of a species from Kong: Skull Island, Dougherty revealed.
“So do you remember the tiny little bat-like creatures that swarm around and pick off the characters?” Dougherty asked. “So they’re present in the final scene of the film. So I like the idea that once the earth opened up and these creatures started to emerge out of the hollow earth, some of these other Skull Island-type creatures flew out.”
The question that Godzilla fans might be asking is, why create so many new monsters when the Godzilla franchise has so many to choose from? Well, it turns out it’s not as simple as all that.
“I wish I could have brought in a few more of the classic Toho creatures but they all come at a price. They’ve all got their fees, and so it was a choice. Do I want to shell out money to use a Toho creature by name or do I want to actually put that money on-screen in a visual effects shot?” Dougherty explained.
As far as the other famous kaiju creatures go, it gets even trickier. Let’s just say if you’re waiting for a Godzilla vs. Gamera movie… keep waiting.
“Well, I actually really appreciate Gamera too,” Dougherty said. “Not as deeply as Godzilla, naturally. He’s not a Toho character so there are rights issues involved, but who knows? Anything’s possible in this day and age. You know, I feel like franchise characters are getting thrown together and bought up by parent companies left and right, so anything’s possible.”
“I’d be down to see that fight,” he concluded. “But I would still have to place my money on Godzilla.”
And what about Zilla, the version of Godzilla that menaced New York City in Roland Emmerich’s failed reboot from 1998? Godzilla: Final Wars revealed that it was its own, distinctive kaiju. Could Michael Dougherty have used Zilla too?
“I don’t know and I don’t know if I would have,” he said.
Fair enough. Godzilla: King of the Monsters is currently rampaging up on the big screen!
