Throughout his 70 years on the big screen, Godzilla created quite the legacy for fighting countless battles. Similar to the titular lizard, the monsters Godzilla fights have changed and evolved over time. Godzilla movies went from being a standalone feature for the monster to being sold on the monster Godzilla fights. How did this change occur, and which monsters did Godzilla have to fight to get there?
The first Godzilla film, released in 1954, only featured the title monster, with no opponent to battle. The first monster Godzilla fought came about a year later, in the sequel “Godzilla Raids Again.” This monster is named Anguirus, and was intended to be the only thing that could match Godzilla’s power. In the story of the movie, Anguirus, a large Ankylosaurus dinosaur, was the ancient rival of Godzilla. In the prehistoric periods, the two would fight often, and due to nuclear weapons testing they’re here to fight again.
Godzilla won this battle handily, killing Anguirus only 40 minutes into the movie. Anguirus would come back in later Godzilla films as an ally to Godzilla, providing assistance in 1968’s “Destroy All Monsters,” as well as the later films “Godzilla vs. Gigan,” “Godzilla vs. Megalon” and “Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla.” Similar to most monsters Godzilla has shared the screen with, Anguirus appeared in the 2004 film “Godzilla Final Wars.” After Anguirus, it took seven years for Godzilla to face his next foe, but the wait was worth it as his next enemy would be among his most iconic.
Despite only appearing in three films alongside Godzilla, King Kong is also cemented in popular culture as one of Godzilla’s most famous rivals. Unlike Anguirus, King Kong was conceived separately from Godzilla, and a movie hadn’t been made about the ape since 1933. In 1962, nearly three decades later, he would meet up with Godzilla in what was, in retrospect, a much more even match for both monsters. The movie leaves the winner of the fight unclear, with much of the common consensus stating that the two tied. King Kong would later get a standalone movie from the studio that made his face-off against Godzilla, Toho Studios, although Godzilla never actually appears.
King Kong would not appear in another Godzilla movie until 2021’s “Godzilla vs. Kong,” though it can be argued that the 2017 prequel “Kong: Skull Island” is a Godzilla movie, as that and the Godzilla movies developed by Legendary Studios share a cinematic universe. Kong would become a staple of the Legendary Godzilla universe, appearing in two TV shows and one movie within it, with more planned from the studio. King Kong may be one of the most popular monsters to fight Godzilla, but only two years from his bout a new monster would enter the ring that would become one of Godzilla’s most frequent on-screen partners.
Similarly to King Kong, Mothra made her debut in a self-titled stand alone film unrelated to Godzilla. Three years after she hit the silver screen, she would battle Godzilla in the film “Mothra vs. Godzilla” in 1964. Mothra starts at a larva before growing into her more iconic form, the moth. The moth form dies early in the movie, and it’s up to two Mothra larvas to defeat Godzilla. Through ingenuitive use of webs that they spit from their mouths, they are able to take down the lizard. Starting with the very next movie, Godzilla and Mothra would be more often depicted as allies than enemies. She would appear alongside Godzilla in future movies “Ghidorah, The Three Headed Monster,” “Ebirah, Horror of the Deep” and “Destroy All Monsters” as an ally to Godzilla.
She would then wait until 1992 to return in “Godzilla vs. Mothra,” where she appears to fight against Godzilla for the first time since the 60s. Mothra would have a short appearance in “Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla” and then she would star in three stand alone movies for the rest of the 20th century. In the early 2000s, Mothra again returned to fight Godzilla in “Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack” and “Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S,” as well as being one of many monsters to appear in “Godzilla Final Wars.” After Legendary began their series of Godzilla films in 2019, Mothra has become Godzilla’s ally once more, fighting alongside him in “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” and “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.” Mothra would also ally with another iconic flying monster.
Only two years after Godzilla premiered, Toho premiered another giant monster. Rodan, a flying monster akin to a pterodactyl, made his first on-screen appearance in a self-titled film in 1956, but wouldn’t appear alongside Godzilla until 1964’s “Ghidorah, The Three Headed Monster.” Rodan would team up with Godzilla in that movie, “Invasion of Astro-Monster” and “Destroy All Monsters” in the four years following. Rodan then wouldn’t appear alongside Godzilla until “Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II” in 1993, where he appeared as a begrudging ally to the monster. Rodan also appeared in “Godzilla Final Wars” nine years later. Rodan would make a final appearance in “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” where he was defeated by Godzilla along with many other monsters. Rodan’s debut alongside Godzilla is unfortunately overshadowed by another monster that debuted in that same movie, who would go on to be Godzilla’s greatest adversary.
In his first appearance, King Ghidorah fought three monsters and nearly won. The fight against King Ghidorah in “Ghidorah, The Three Headed Monster” was the first time Godzilla had unambiguously won a fight against another monster since “Godzilla Raids Again,” as well as being the first time Godzilla teamed up with other monsters. Ghidorah, as the title of his first movie suggests, is a hydra-like monster with three heads. After being defeated in his first bout, he would be featured as the main antagonist in “Invasion of Astro-Monster” and “Destroy All Monsters,” as well as teaming up against Godzilla in “Godzilla vs. Gigan.” Nearly two decades later, Ghidorah would return as the main antagonist in “Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah” before taking another long hiatus from the screen. Surprisingly, Ghidorah did not appear in “Godzilla Final Wars,” instead making his most recent appearance in Legendary’s “Godzilla: King of the Monsters.”
Following the introduction of Ghidorah, there was a lack of returning opponents for Godzilla to fight. There was Hedorah, Gigan and Megalon, each appearing in movies named after them, but rarely would they appear in movies past their first, mostly showing up in Final Wars. That was until 1974, when Mechagodzilla debuted. Appearing first in the film “Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla,” the mechanical version of the famous monster has appeared consistently to battle nearly each iteration of Godzilla. The robot appeared in “Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II,” “Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla” and “Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S,” skipping an appearance in Final Wars. Mechagodzilla lastly appeared in Legendary’s “Godzilla vs. Kong” as a surprise villain.
Many of the other monsters Godzilla faced after Mechagodzilla such as Biollante, Megaguirus and Destroyah wouldn’t see appearances past their debuts, and in some cases “Godzilla Final Wars.” The truth is, many of the Godzilla characters considered iconic today made their on-screen debuts with the monster within 20 years of its conception. Perhaps that age has added to their cultural relevance over the years. With Godzilla raking in high box office grosses and critical acclaim for recent releases, it’s possible that some of the lesser appreciated monsters will get a chance to shine alongside the ones already ingrained in the cultural landscape.
