Summary
Godzillais known for his team-ups with other monsters nearly as famous as he is, but several exciting kaiju teams in his movies never got to pan out.Though he started out as the solo subject of 1954’sGodzilla, the King of the Monsters developed a whole ecosystem of new monsters as his movies progressed, with many monsters forming teams in battle of some form or another. WhetherGodzilla’s villainsformed alliances against him or radioactive reptile himself got a teammate, Godzilla’s movies are full of monster alliances.
ThroughoutGodzilla’s many canceled films,some potent opportunities for monster team ups were sadly abandoned. Some would’ve given the regular cast of Godzilla’s recurring monsters brand-new team compositions in all-out kaiju war, whereas others would’ve introduced brand-new foes to face down Godzilla on his own. In any case, it’s a shame that some of the monster teams with the most potential in Godzilla’s history were never able to manifest beyond the planning stage.
8Baragon, Anguirus, And Varan
Would’ve Formed A Team Of Lesser-Known Cult Monsters
It’s a sad reality of the Godzilla movies that popularity plays a massive factor as to whether certain monsters can expect to see additional appearances. Interestingly,one canceled project would’ve pitted three of the Earth’s lesser-known kaiju against a villainous Godzilla, presenting a rare story in which the monsters teaming up to face down Godzilla were actually the good guys. This team would have consisted of Baragon, the four-legged tunneler first introduced inFrankenstien vs Baragon, Anguirus, Godzilla’s spiky-shelled sidekick, and Varan, an obscure lizard-like monster with the gliding membrane of a flying squirrel.
The scrapped project was burdened with the mouthful of a title,Godzilla X Varan, Baragon and Anguirus: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack.The script was later re-configured into 2001’sGodzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack.Mothra and King Ghidorah were determined by the studio to be more popular picks that could draw more attention to the film, meaning thatAnguirus, Varan, and Baragon’s Godzilla strike teamwould sadly never come to fruition.
Godzilla Almost Had A Different Final Villain (Not Destoroyah)
Destoroyah famously served as Godzilla’s final villain in the Heisei series, but a different monster was actually in mind for the role first.
7Mothra Teams Up WIth Her Evil Twin Brother, Gigamoth
Evidently, Mothra Puts Family First
These days, the benevolent insectoid kaiju Mothra is usually thought of as Godzilla’s ally, frequently appearing to bolster his forces against some other monster or sacrifice herself to lend her life force to Godzilla’s aid. It’s easy to forget thatMothra’s first appearance alongside Godzilla had her going wing-to-toe with the King of the Monsters on her own, in the aptly-titledMothra vs. Godzilla.Initially, Toho had plans to give Mothra a re-match alongside some familial backup.
The canceled 1992 filmGodzilla vs. Gigamothwould’ve introduced Gigamoth as essentially Mothra’s evil twin brother. A member of the same species heavily mutated from, what else, nuclear radiation, Gigamoth would’ve presented a far more dangerous foe for Godzilla, being immune to the creature’s atomic breath by way of radioactive energy absorption. Eventually, Mothra and Gigamoth were to join forces against Godzilla, combining their bodies into one to form a sort of super-Mothra that would then entomb Godzilla in a powerful cocoon.
19 Movie Monsters Godzilla Was Supposed To Fight (& Why They Never Happened)
Godzilla has fought a huge number of monsters over the years, but they’re the tip of the iceberg compared to the amount of intended monsters.
6Godzilla’s Destroy All Monsters Team & King Kong
King Kong Nearly Shared The Screen With More Than Just Godzilla
Despite the success of the first 1962 film to pit King Kong against Godzilla, the two wouldn’t be back for a re-match until 2021’sGodzilla vs. Kong. However, King Kong nearly appeared among the stacked cast of 1968’sDestroy All Monsters, one of the most ambitious Godzilla projects ever planned at the time. Starring King Ghidorah, Mothra, Anguirus, Rodan, and more,Destroy All Monsterswas a crossover event of epic proportions, though Kong ultimately missed out on the action.
King Kong was almost among the massive lineup of monsters that teamed up to take on the villainous King Ghidorah, which means it would’ve been the first time Godzilla and Kong joined forces against a common enemy decades before Legendary’sGodzilla vs. Konghad them team up against Mechagodzilla. Even more insulting, a minor King Kong villain fromKing Kong Escapes, Gorosaurus, made the final cut of the film without his more famous simian opponent. This was due toToho losing licensing rights to Kongshortly after the film’s release, not wanting to promise audiences more than they could deliver.
Godzilla’s Destroy All Monsters Was Toho’s Avengers (& It Was Awesome)
Decades before Marvel’s Avengers movies, Toho’s Destroy All Monsters was the biggest and most inclusive crossover movie ever made.
5Godzilla Nearly Attacked Humanity Alongside Gods From Space
God’s Godzilla Would’ve Given Real-Life Religion A Kaiju Makeover
A controversial film that never got off the ground for good reason,God’s Godzillawould’ve featured one of the most unbelievable Godzilla team-ups ever conceived. In the pitch for the unmade film,kaiju versions of all the Earth’s major religious deities would have descended from space, revealing themselves as aliens. The most baffling inclusion was the concept of a kaiju-sized Jesus, descending to wreak havoc on humanity alongside Godzilla himself.
God’s Godzillahad an incredibly bleak pitch, describing thedownfall of humanity’s dominion over the Earth as Jesus and Godzilla assaulted the planet with psychic attacks, massive tidal waves, and good old-fashioned giant monster destruction. The film was to end with Jesus ascending into heaven over the Egyptian pyramids as Godzilla formed into a sort of giant sphinx, revealing the future of humanity as horribly mutated creatures. It’s clear why the ideas forGod’s Godzillawere discarded, as it’s hard to believe the narrative was seriously pitched as a Godzilla film in the first place.
4Godzilla, Anguirus, A Dinosaur, And A Giant Chameleon
Would’ve Wreaked Havoc In One Of The Strangest Godzilla Movies Yet
One of the most bizarre Godzilla movies that never made it to production was 1956’s proposed film,Bride of Godzilla.Introducing an early version ofthe Monsterverse’s Hollow Earthyears before Legendary would play with the same concept, the story centered around a mad scientist named Dr. Shida, who builds a robot version of his late wife. When Godzilla rises from the center of the Earth alongside a trio of other monsters,the doctor proceeds to build a giant cybernetic version of his daughter, which Godzilla ends up falling in love with.
The film would have seen Godzilla reunited with frequent teammate Anguirus, alongside a giant chameleon and a massive Archaeopteryx, a flying feathered dinosaur. Once again pitting Godzilla and company against the human race as villains,the film would’ve ended with Godzilla perplexingly becoming smitten with the giant robot daughter, falling for her wiles only for her to detonate herself with a massive explosion, seemingly taking Godzilla out. While the strange honeypot story surely wouldn’t have worked, seeing Godzilla and Anguirus join forces with some hollow Earth dinosaurs is a promising idea.
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The Godzilla franchise is strange enough, but things would have been even weirder had these cancelled movies been greenlit.
3The Gargantuas Could’ve Teamed Up Against Godzilla
Possibly Marking Godzilla’s Second Giant Monster Crossover
WhileKong vs. Godzillapresented the world with the first major crossover film between a Western monster and a Japanese Kaiju, a planned 1978 project almost did the same, albeit with a far more obscure property. The American and Japanese joint-effort production, tentatively titledU.S.-Japan Collaboration: Godzilla,would have brought backSandra and Gaira, giant creatures known as Gargantuas which first appeared battling each other in 1966’sThe War of the Gargantuas.This time around, Sandra and Gaira would’ve joined forces against Godzilla himself.
Details around the film’s plot are scarce, leaving a lot up in the air as tohow Godzilla could have inspired a common enemy worthy of making the two Gargantua rivals put their differences aside.While the film never ended up manifesting, a 2014 comic,Godzilla: Rules of the Earthdid feature a battle between Godzilla, Sandra and Gaira. It’s a shame that a collaboration between U.S. and Japanese producers was never able to materialize long enough for a film that could strike while the iron was hot in terms of the Gargantua’s relevance in pop culture.
10 More Awesome Kaiju Movies That Don’t Feature Godzilla
Godzilla set the trend for kaiju films, but there are plenty of other equally awesome movies in the genre. Here are 10 more awesome kaiju films.
2Godzilla Almost Fought An Original Monster Couple
Redmoon And Erabus Nearly Debuted In A Team-Up Battle
2014’sGodzillawas remarkable for being the first time Godzilla threw down against a pair of mated monsters, going up againstthe MUTOs, a monster speciescharacterized by their sexual dimorphism. Between the bulky female and the smaller, but flight-capable male, Godzilla had a hard time against the MUTOs, but he nearly fought another monstrous mated pair with a similar dynamic years earlier.In 1972, Godzilla was planned to go up against two new original monsters named Redmoon and Erabus in the scrapped film,Godzilla vs. Redmoon.
The story was to clarify that Redmoon descended to the Earth’s surface from the moon, whereas Erabus rose from the depths of a sea. Upon luring them toward one another in hopes of getting them to fight and take each other out, the humans are horrified to learn that both creatures are actually a male and female of the same species, and go on to reproduce. The two were to go on a rampage after their newborn child is killed,leaving it up to Godzilla to take both kaiju on at once.
1Godzilla, Anguirus And Mothra Fighting Together
Could Have Established The Big 3 Of Toho’s Benevolent Monsters
Despite both being two of Godzilla’s closest allies,Anguirus and an adult Mothra form never truly get the chance to fight side by side.Granted, inDestroy All Monsters, Anguirus and a larval Mothra both participate in the assault against King Ghidorah, but a definitive trio featuring two of Godzilla’s most frequent collaborators is sadly never featured in a classic Godzilla movie. One planned film, with the lengthy titleGiant Monsters Converge on Okinawa! Showdown in Zanpamisaki,would have been the first to do so.
Like many Godzilla movies,Giant Monsters Converge on Okinawa! Showdown in Zanpamisakicentered around an alien race that assaults the Earth, attacking the planet with a massive robot named Garugan.Godzilla recruits both Mothra and Anguirus to help him fight this new foe, which would’ve been the first time the two truly battled side-by-side against a superior opponent.Eventually, the ideas of the film morphed intoGodzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, replacing Mothra with King Caesar asGodzilla’s ally.
After Godzilla x Kong, The Monsterverse Needs Anguirus More Than Ever
After Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, the need for Anguirus to join Legendary’s Monsterverse and fight beside Godzilla has never been greater.
