Kaiju Profile: King Ghidorah, Mothra & Rodan (2019)
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VIDEOS
• The Godzilla Timeline
• Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah Time Travel
• Godzilla Misconceptions Vol. 1
• Inconsistent Stats Vol. 1
• Anime GODZILLA Timeline
• Zilla Name Controversy
• Anime GODZILLA Timeline Part 2
• History of Monarch (MonsterVerse Timeline)
• The Story of King Kong vs. Godzilla
• 2020 Kaiju Streaming & Home Video Guide
• Lost & Unreleased Kaiju Media
Godzilla 1954 • Titanosaurus
Showa King Ghidorah • Universal King Kong
Skeleturtle • Toho King Kong • Showa Mothra
Biollante • Kiryu • King Kong 2017
V-Rex • Gigan • SpaceGodzilla • Destoroyah
Hedorah • Monster X • Heisei Godzilla
Mechani-Kong • Godzilla 2017
Minilla • Gorosaurus • Fake Godzilla
Meat-Eater • Showa Mechagodzilla
Godzilla 1998 / Zilla • Baby Godzilla 1998
Godzilla (The Series) • Gezora
Showa Rodan • Anguirus • Anime Mechagodzilla
Orga • Frankenstein
Giant Octopus • Baragon • Sanda and Gaira
Anime King Ghidorah
Heisei King Ghidorah / Mecha-King Ghidorah
Strange, dead monster
Gamera (Heisei Trilogy) • The MUTOs
Mothra and King Ghidorah (Millennium)
Rodan (Heisei & Millennium) • Maguma
Other Titans of Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Jet Jaguar • Manda • Zone Fighter
Godzilla Earth • Giant Condor
Megalon • King Ghidorah/Mothra/Rodan (2019)
Mechagodzilla (RPO) • Heisei Mechagodzilla
Kamoebas & Ganimes • Dogzilla & Kat Kong
Skullcrawler • Mechagodzilla (2021)
Godzilla (2014-2021) • Charles Barkley
Kong (2017-2021) • Rebirth Trilogy Mothras
Gigan Miles & Gigan Rex • Ghogo
Space Beastman
King Caesar • Godzilla 2004
Megaguirus, Meganulon & Meganula
The MonsterVerse King Ghidorah, Mothra and Rodan Kaiju Profile is the 60th episode of Wikizilla's Kaiju Profiles video series. It was uploaded on July 4, 2020. The design portion of the video was uploaded on August 27, 2020.
Videos
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Profile transcript
In 2014, Legendary Pictures announced that the sequel to their Godzilla reboot would feature three of his most famous co-stars. One would oppose him, one would aid him, and one would... see which way the wind was blowing. Greetings kaiju fans, I'm The Boy Who Cried Godzilla - here to give you a glance at the MonsterVerse King Ghidorah, Mothra, and Rodan!
"Godzilla: King of the Monsters" realized Rodan, Mothra, and King Ghidorah using modern computer-generated effects for the first time. However, director Michael Dougherty made sure to remain true to the monsters' roots and keep them recognizable. Initially scattered around the globe, they collided in Boston to determine the fate of the world.
Design
As with a few of our past profiles, the Design section will be uploaded separately. It'll need more time to be finished though, so it'll be a bit after this one.
Origins
To fit in with the mythology of Legendary's MonsterVerse, all three monsters became members of a group of ancient apex creatures dubbed "Titans" by Monarch, the organization devoted to studying them. As the post-credits scene in "Kong: Skull Island" reveals, Monarch has been aware of the trio's existence since at least 1973.
The MonsterVerse Rodan hails from the fictional Mexican island of Isla de Mara (Isla de Mona during production). In 1991, Monarch discovered him hibernating within the molten magma of the island's volcano, and constructed Outpost 56 around him in order to contain the winged Titan. According to Dougherty, Rodan's parents nested in this volcano, which is why he took up residence there himself. Ancient records of Rodan, which spoke of him as "the Fire Demon," recounted how he leveled cities just by flying over them.
In 2009, Monarch found Mothra within her egg inside the ancient "Temple of the Moth" in China's Yunnan rainforest, designed to house each generation of the Titan before she hatched. This became the site of Outpost 61. However, according to the film's novelization, she originally hails from Indonesia, where she was worshiped by the natives and referred to as "Mosura." Mothra appears in mythology and fairy tales from all over the world, which regard her as a truly benevolent being.
King Ghidorah was one of Monarch's most recent findings, discovered frozen in the Antarctic ice by a team headed by Dr. Vivienne Graham prior to 2014. Given the designation "Monster Zero," the three-headed Titan was the largest specimen they had uncovered — his name and origins shrouded in mystery. Only after Ghidorah was unleashed upon the world once more did they learn the truth: he was an alien invader bent on wiping out all life on Earth so he could terraform the planet to his liking. Godzilla and Mothra joined forces to seal him beneath Antarctica several millennia ago.
History
Five years after the existence of Titans became known to the world at large, Mothra began to hatch in her abode, the Temple of the Moth. Witnesses to her birth included Monarch's chief paleobiologist, Dr. Emma Russell, and her daughter Madison. Monarch's containment attempts panicked the newborn larval Mothra, who tossed guards aside and restrained them with her silk. Before Monarch could terminate her, Emma tried calming Mothra using her sonar device, the ORCA. Her first attempt angered Mothra further, but her second try successfully pacified the Titan, allowing Madison to touch her face. Their peaceful communion was broken when an explosion rocked the Outpost. Armed men stormed the control room and gunned down the Monarch personnel before abducting Emma and Madison along with the ORCA.
In their underwater headquarters of Castle Bravo, Monarch determined that the abductor was Alan Jonah, an ecoterrorist bent on "restoring natural order" and trafficking Titan DNA. Mothra had cocooned in a waterfall near the Outpost, but Emma's estranged husband Mark told the others that Jonah was likely after a much bigger prize. After Godzilla paid them a visit and suddenly swam away, Monarch discovered that he was making his way to Antarctica, the site of Outpost 32 and the three-headed Titan known as Monster Zero. Monarch rushed there in their flying fortress, the USS Argo, and landed nearby in an Osprey. By then, the base had already been seized by Jonah; his forces having set a trap for Monarch's G-Team. Mark ran in after them to save his family, but was shocked when Emma and Madison refused to escape with him. Emma grabbed a detonator and set off the terrorists' explosives; as the ice split open and the entire Outpost sank into the fissure, G-Team fled, while Emma used the ORCA to awaken Monster Zero. The freshly-emerged three-headed Titan regarded the humans with some curiosity before swiftly eliminating the majority with his gravity beams. The blast damaged the Osprey, prompting Madison to grab the ORCA to distract Monster Zero before he could smash it. Soon he found himself facing a real Titan, as Godzilla burst through the ice shelf to confront his ancient rival. The two traded blows, with Monster Zero managing to dodge a blast of atomic breath before toppling Godzilla with his gravity beams. The Argo arrived to rescue the survivors and began bombarding Monster Zero with missiles, to which the creature responded by flying away and disappearing within a tropical storm over South America.
Emma contacted the Argo and explained her plan to awaken all of the dormant Titans around the world so they could prevent the inevitable mass extinction humanity's excesses would lead to. Monarch determined Emma and Jonah had set their sights on Outpost 56 in Isla de Mara, Mexico. G-Team helped evacuate the town as Jonah's men disabled the containment field around the volcano and Emma used the ORCA to rouse the Titan within: Rodan. Monarch also became aware that the tropical storm Monster Zero disappeared into was actually being generated by the creature—who was on his way thanks to Rodan's cries. The Argo and a squadron of fighter jets lured Rodan towards the larger monster. The fire demon effortlessly wiped out the fighters, but before he could grab the Argo he found himself in the path of Monster Zero. The Titans clashed in the air, but the three-headed terror swiftly prevailed. He targeted the Argo next, but Godzilla intervened just in time. The King of the Monsters had the advantage underwater, managing to tear off his enemy's left head. However, the U.S. military wasn't content to let them fight, detonating a new weapon called the Oxygen Destroyer in an attempt to eliminate both Titans. Unfortunately, the chemical weapon had no effect on Monster Zero, and drove Godzilla to the brink of death. The now-two-headed beast perched atop the Isla de Mara volcano and regenerated his missing head, then emitted a shriek which echoed across the world, awakening all of the other Titans from their hibernation.
Through further research into ancient records, Monarch learned that Monster Zero was not part of the planet's natural order. These legends referred to him by the name Ghidorah, "the One Who is Many." Emma reached the same conclusion, and was horrified at Jonah's willingness to let Ghidorah run rampant. With Godzilla eliminated, Ghidorah could command the other Titans to destroy the world on his behalf—with one exception. Mothra emerged from her cocoon under the waterfall in China and flew to Castle Bravo, where she put on a dazzling display. By analyzing her bioacoustics, Monarch learned she was communicating with Godzilla, who was still alive. Inside the USS Scorpion, Mark and scientists Ishiro Serizawa, Ilene Chen, and Rick Stanton followed Mothra to Godzilla's lair among the sunken ruins of an ancient city within the Hollow Earth. Serizawa gave his life to detonate a thermonuclear warhead next to Godzilla, the radiation providing him with the energy needed to fully recover from the Oxygen Destroyer and challenge Ghidorah once again.
Mothra flew back to China to lay her egg offscreen. While Ghidorah and Rodan clashed with the military in Washington, D.C. Madison stole the ORCA and brought it to Fenway Park in Boston, broadcasting a signal through the sound system in order to halt the rampaging Titans around the globe. Determined to eliminate this artificial rival, Ghidorah destroyed the loudspeakers and cornered Madison. A blast of atomic breath cut him off: Godzilla had arrived. The ancient enemies battled again in the heart of Boston. Mothra soon joined the battle, briefly tag-teaming the three-headed dragon with the Big G, but Rodan intercepted her afterwards. After feeding on a power substation, Ghidorah began gaining the upper hand against Godzilla. Rodan managed to injure Mothra, but was unprepared for her stinger attack, which took him out of the fight. Ghidorah lifted Godzilla above the clouds and dropped him back down to the ground. Before he could finish him off, the Queen of the Monsters crawled on top of her counterpart and charged Ghidorah, who promptly disintegrated her with a point-blank blast from his gravity beams. Mothra's ashes rained down on Godzilla, infusing him with energy… but Ghidorah began to drain it. By then, Emma had defected from Jonah and worked with Mark and G-Team to rescue Madison. She recalibrated the ORCA and began to drive away with it in order to lure Ghidorah away from Godzilla and an escaping Monarch Osprey with Mark and Madison aboard. Ghidorah pursued her and blew up the vehicle with his gravity beams. As Emma lay on the street, she uttered… "Long live the king" ...up at the looming Ghidorah. He turned to see Burning Godzilla approaching him. An incendiary nuclear pulse in the shape of Mothra's wings melted away the three-headed Titan's wings; he retaliated with his gravity beams, which failed to faze Godzilla at all. The latter sent forth another pulse which incinerated his enemy's left and right heads, after which Godzilla stomped on his chest before his atomic energy reached critical mass and exploded.
When the smoke cleared, Godzilla rose from the rubble, holding Ghidorah's remaining head in his jaws, then proceeded to burn it away with his atomic breath. Victorious, he turned to see four of the other Titans Ghidorah had awakened approaching him: Behemoth, Scylla, Methuselah, and the Queen MUTO. Rodan, still alive, landed in front of Godzilla and roared. Godzilla returned a glare which caused Rodan and all of the other Titans to bow before the definitive King of Monsters.
In the following months, Rodan began nesting in Fiji, while Monarch uncovered Mothra's egg in China. Meanwhile... fishermen from Isla de Mara recovered Ghidorah's severed head and sold it to Jonah and his men.
[Alan Jonah:] "We'll take it."
Abilities
All three Titans are capable of flight despite their tremendous size. Mothra and Rodan's exact flight speeds are unknown, though Rodan's is specified to be supersonic. When flying, he generated sonic booms that leveled Isla de Mara. King Ghidorah, who could break the sound barrier in all prior live action films, was only capable of flying at a speed of about Mach 0.8.
Physical Capabilities: Rodan is deadliest in the air. He easily dismantled the fleet of F-35 fighter jets engaging him by smacking them with his wings, tearing them apart with his talons and beak, and by performing a midair barrel-roll maneuver. During the battle in Boston, he utilized his aerial prowess to repeatedly ram Mothra while clawing at her with his talons.
The Legendary Mothra is equipped with mantis-like clawed forelimbs which she uses to defend herself in close combat - a departure from the puny legs of previous iterations. A strike from these claws forced Rodan off of her. Her deadliest weapon is her stinger, which she drove straight through Rodan's chest. Though he survived, he was incapacitated on the ground, flailing, only recovering after Godzilla killed Ghidorah.
Ghidorah preferred to make use of his multiple heads in melee combat. His necks and tails were fully prehensile, and he effortlessly lifted the Big G's over-90,000 ton body thousands of meters into the air. This incarnation's wings, clearly modified from arm-like forelimbs, were more versatile than those of past versions; he can even wingwalk with them.
Like all Titans, Rodan, Mothra, and King Ghidorah are highly durable, rendering them immune to conventional weaponry and resistant to savage blows from other Titans. Ghidorah's most impressive feat was enduring two blasts of Godzilla's atomic breath in Boston, and of course being unaffected by the Oxygen Destroyer - which killed most everything in the sea save for the Big G, who was dramatically weakened by it. Resulting from his prolonged time submerged in molten magma, Rodan has formed an armored layer of volcanic rock over his wings. A point-blank gravity beam shot launched him into the sea, but he was back up and bowing to the new alpha not very long afterwards. Mothra's durability is less proven, but her victory over the larger Rodan is notable.
Rodan is equipped with a biological magma system, meaning that his very blood is like molten lava. Dripping from the ends of his wings, it burned Mothra's wings during their battle, hindering her ability to fly. In addition, the movie's novelization states that Rodan can cause volcanoes to erupt simply by flying over them.
Mothra's primary form of defense is her silk attack. Unlike past incarnations, she can use this technique even in her imago stage. This silk completely immobilized two of King Ghidorah's heads, allowing Godzilla to tackle him.
Mothra is bioluminescent, and emits a variety of colorful lights from her body depending on her mood or the situation. As a larva, Mothra emits a soft blue light when she is calm, and a bright red light when she is agitated. In her imago stage, Mothra can emit volumetric beta-ray bioluminescent patterns from her wings called God Rays which dispel surrounding clouds and produce blinding white light. She used them as a beacon to lead Monarch to Godzilla's lair so they could revitalize him.
Mothra possesses a symbiotic relationship with Godzilla, dating back to the ancient past. The Queen and King of the Monsters communicate with each other using sonar patterns over great distances. The final stage of their symbiosis occurs when Mothra is killed and her energy flows into Godzilla's body. This causes him to temporarily enter a superpowered state called Burning Godzilla, in which he emits a tremendous amount of heat and can utilize extremely powerful nuclear pulses. These pulses possess the pattern of Mothra's wings and the sound of her roar.
Moreover, she has a psychic connection with the twin sisters born into each generation of the Chen family. Their bond is an ancient one: note the statues flanking her egg in the Temple of the Moth. The novelization suggests that this link extends to Madison Russell, who has a vision of Mothra while lying unconscious in the ruins of her old house in Boston.
Mothra's capable of reproducing asexually, allowing her to survive as a lineage in perpetuity. When a new individual is born, she isn't simply a new offspring but a reincarnation, with all of her memories passed on genetically.
King Ghidorah's signature weapon are his golden bio-electrical gravity beams. These beams vaporize human beings instantaneously and deal incredible damage to other Titans. Godzilla was knocked off his feet by them, while Rodan was dispatched by a direct blast from just one. A point-blank blast from all three heads completely disintegrated Mothra.
King Ghidorah has an affinity for electricity, granted by the highly conductive properties of his scales, which contain trace amounts of gold. He can generate powerful storms around himself, which project lightning that disintegrates organic life. He grew more powerful after absorbing electricity from a power station in Boston, discharging lightning bolts from his wings that obliterated surrounding aircraft and even disoriented Godzilla.
King Ghidorah could siphon energy through his bite. After the wounded Godzilla absorbed energy from Mothra's ashes, Ghidorah bit down on him and started absorbing it - visible as a red glow traveling through his necks. Hm… Keizer Ghidorah, much?
Thanks to his bizarre alien biology, King Ghidorah possesses extremely potent regeneration. After having his left head torn off by Godzilla, Ghidorah completely regrew it in a matter of moments. Because the majority of his neurons are distributed throughout his body like an octopus', the new head had the same memories and personality as the old one. Ghidorah's healing factor was demonstrated again in Boston, when holes in his wings visibly healed as he launched lightning from them.
Trivia
Accidental Foreshadowing: "Godzilla: King of the Monsters" is not the first Warner Bros. film where Godzilla battled King Ghidorah. That distinction goes to 1985's "Pee-wee's Big Adventure", which went a prophetic step further by staging their battle on the Warner Bros. studio lot. The Yokohama set in "GMK" also features a WB sign. And, Mothra's name appears briefly in "Godzilla" (2014), as a pair of stickers on an insect terrarium in the Brody family's long-abandoned Janjira apartment.
One With Three Heads: The shooting script for "Kong: Skull Island" called for Iwi artwork of a three-headed monster living beneath Skull Island. The novelization kept this detail, but steered clear of describing any Toho monsters during the post-credits scene.
It Runs in the Family: The Chen twins are, of course, a reference to Mothra's tiny priestesses in the Toho movies, typically called the Shobijin. Their hairstyles also recall Miki Saegusa and the Cosmos in "Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla", though that may be a coincidence.
Numbers Game: The numbers for the Monarch outposts built around Mothra, King Ghidorah, and Rodan all have special significance. Outpost 32 in Antarctica references the 1982 film "The Thing," which takes place at Outpost 31. It's also half of 64, with 1964 being the year King Ghidorah made his debut. Outpost 56 in Mexico and Outpost 61 in China recall the years Rodan and Mothra made their own debuts. By the way, although we never go inside Outpost 56 in the movie, there is some concept art of it showing murals and a Monarch facility.
That wraps up the main part of the MonsterVerse Rodan, Mothra, and King Ghidorah. We originally planned to profile this trio shortly after "Godzilla: King of the Monsters" hit Blu-ray, then after "Godzilla vs. Kong" came out in case any of them turned out to be in it. But with the movie delayed and no sign of them in the Playmates and Funko toys, it was time to just go for it. Thanks for bearing with us—we'll see you next time!
Design transcript
Hey kaiju fans, I'm The Boy Who Cried Godzilla. Today—to round out our coverage of the MonsterVerse Ghidorah, Mothra, and Rodan—we're talking about how director Mike Dougherty, and the army of artists at his command, updated these three classic kaiju for "Godzilla: King of the Monsters"!
Legendary licensed King Ghidorah, Mothra, and Rodan from Toho in 2014, well before they hired Dougherty. While the company didn't mandate that he use them, he said learning that he could was "like Christmas morning." It was a "Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster" reunion, except this time the sides would be even.https://youtu.be/66jlU5l0MgI
Legacy Effects, Amalgamated Dynamic Incorporated, and Half M.T. were all involved in designing the Titans, with instructions to make them look mythical with recognizable silhouettes. Per Dougherty in his audio commentary of the movie, the four main Titans were each meant to embody a different element. [KATARA: Water… Earth… Fire… Air.] The artists used a combination of traditional concept art, clay models, ZBrush, and Maya to arrive at the final designs. Of course, those designs were the subject of furious fan speculation even before the cave paintings in "Kong: Skull Island," up 'til Legendary and S.H. MonsterArts revealed them in full at Tokyo Comic Con 2018. Adding fuel to the fire, a NECA Mothra figure, a Rodan maquette, and possibly a CG Ghidorah model all leaked online before then.
Obviously the Titans weren't present on set, but to help the actors react, Dougherty blasted their roars using a device he called "Behemoth" and "Voice of God." LED screens representing the monsters' bioluminescence allowed for more natural lighting. Under the supervision of Guillaume Rocheron, seven companies worked on the 1,535 visual effect shots for "Godzilla: King of the Monsters": MPC, Double Negative, Ollin VFX, RodeoFX, Method Studios, Raynault VFX, and Savage VFX. According to Rocheron, MPC handled "most of the battle scenes" and created models for the four main monsters. The end credits listed the four Titans as playing themselves, the first Godzilla movie to include such a joke, but credited the actors who provided motion-capture reference further down.
GHIDORAH
Though clearly recognizable as Godzilla's arch-rival, Legendary's King Ghidorah deviated from past designs in two key ways: a more muscular chest to support his three necks and a willingness to walk on his wings like a bat. Early concepts explored emphasizing the creature's extraterrestrial origins, but a more traditional design won out. According to sculptor Simon Lee, "I didn't want the creature to have the wings spread all the time, as that can actually create a problem with the camera framing, because of how big he is." Lee made nearly 60 concept sculptures of Ghidorah, including the final maquette, with Timothy Martin making some final tweaks during production. The artists were inspired by Asian dragons, reptiles, bats, dinosaurs, giraffes, horses, and various marine life. Once Ghidorah's design progressed to 3D modelling, his wings took on the texture of a bat, while his skin drew from corn snakes, iguanas, and chameleons. In addition, Half M.T. co-owner Miguel Ortega noted that rust and potatoes were useful for all the monsters, since "there's something about [them] that your brain knows is created by nature, as opposed to by hand."
At one point in his life, Dougherty owned three dogs, each with their own temperament. Ghidorah's heads followed suit, with a commanding center head, aggressive right head, and curious left head. Dougherty nicknamed them Ichi, Ni, and San respectively, though fans embraced a different sobriquet for the left head… Kevin, as the director jokingly tweeted. A different actor played each of Ghidorah's heads for motion capture reference: Jason Liles in the center, Richard Dorton on the left, and Alan Maxson on the right. Rocheron explained that this helped the animators understand "how 3 different brains perform the same action at the same time." For battles against Godzilla, they worked with TJ Storm, reprising his role from the 2014 film. Liles had experience in the genre as well, having played George in "Rampage." In an interview with Jadeen Mercado of Nerd Alert News, he recounted the day that one of Dougherty's dogs visited the set. Much as Ghidorah whipped Titans around the world into a frenzy, the actors' performances were compelling enough to drive him "berserk […] barking like crazy" as the staff tried to calm him.
With three heads, a pair of wings, and two tails, rigging and animating Ghidorah was no easy task, even in the previz stage. The filmmakers based his fighting style on bears and Komodo dragons, giving him overlap with Godzilla. One of his most devastating moves was inspired by golden eagles, who kill goats by picking them up and dropping them off mountains. There was one physical Ghidorah prop on set, which was ultimately cut from the movie: a tooth that Madison backed into while trying to evade him in Fenway Park.
Snake hisses went into his new roars, and if you listen closely, you can hear his Showa-era "flying sound" just before he touches down in Boston… and later, one of his Heisei-era grunts.
MOTHRA
Dougherty regarded Mothra as the most difficult monster to redesign. He directed his team to give Mothra more physicality than previous incarnations, and they came up with a wasp-like stinger and mantis-like spiked forearms. These weapons would look out of place on most Toho Mothras, but the designers opted to make her body more sleek and streamlined, closer in proportions to a real insect. Early designs proved to look too tank-like; they settled on something closer to a jet fighter. Elements of dragonfly wings, hornets, butterflies, and of course, moths went into her new look. Dougherty also revisited "Starship Troopers," presumably for the Brain Bug. The spots on her wings were patterned after Godzilla's eyes to allude to their symbiotic relationship.
Mothra is one of the few explicitly female kaiju, and Dougherty wanted her body to look like an "old vase." According to Legacy FX member Luca Nemolato, "The idea was that this civilization in the past had seen her and been inspired by these shapes to create their fertility gods, and she's the mother queen of them." Cast and crew alike regarded Mothra as a more spiritual, even angelic monster, representing "Mother Nature's protector," and a perpetual cycle of death and rebirth. But she also had to look dangerous, necessitating a delicate balance in her features. Needless to say, it can be difficult for a human audience to glean much emotion from the face of a moth, so the animators developed a highly advanced face rig for her model. Her mandibles, wings, and legs all helped her emote as well.
Mothra's larval form really only appears in a single scene, but her design still required great care, going through "a zillion different versions" in the words of Ortega. The first monster in the film audiences see for an extended period, she needed to go from scaring them to charming them in a matter of seconds. As insect larvae don't have much in the way of faces, the designers had to weld together aspects from several larvae and adult insects to give her eyes and a mouth. Even though she was a newborn, the team wanted her to still feel tough, so they armed her with claws (a big step up from the itty-bitty legs of all past Mothra larvae) as well as armored plates.
Though all four of the movie's main Titans have bioluminescence, Mothra's is the most extreme. As a larva, she emits orange light when alarmed, red when enraged, and blue when calmed, a nod to the larvae in "Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S." changing their eye color when their mother died. Dougherty wanted the imago to leave trails of luminous dust that gave her a comet-like tail as she flew, but in the interest of not having every scene be overpowered by her presence, he opted to have it disperse as she flew and mix in with surrounding clouds.
In an alternate post-credits scene that was storyboarded but never filmed, Monarch brought Mothra's egg to a hidden chamber in Tokyo, where Chen's daughters sang to it. We would have put this in the last video, but Dougherty posted about it just hours before the upload finished.
RODAN
Mike Dougherty holds Rodan in high regard, but even he admitted that the kaiju has "always been more of a sidekick. He's a henchmonster." In one version of the story, Rodan defected to Godzilla's side to oppose Ghidorah, but to switch up expectations, he stuck with Monster Zero for as long as he could in the film.
In Rodan's debut, he and his mate seemingly perished in Mt. Aso, and either he or his offspring emerged from that same volcano in "Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster." Dougherty wanted him to live in a volcano again—and look the part, with wings covered in cooled magma. The sparks and lava falling from his wings also helped him evoke the image of a phoenix. One piece of concept art by Christopher Shy even showed him spitting fire, and he seems to have a breath weapon of some kind in the "Kong: Skull Island" cave painting as well. Why was that dropped? Toho seems reluctant to depict regular Rodan spitting any weapon, only ever giving one to the separately trademarked Fire Rodan; the monster's wind breath seen in the original film has never returned either. Influences from the animal kingdom included pterosaurs (of course), turkey vultures, eagles, hawks, and the feet of ostriches. Matt Allsopp, returning from the 2014 film, recalled that the artists quickly realized they had to steer clear of anything that looked too much like the male MUTO. Some concepts even gave Rodan feathers, which would have been a first for the character - and a nice callback to the unused feather-winged Rodan designs all the way from 1956. Tim Martin of ADI included the feathers in his maquette, dubbed the "final maquette" in the artbook, though they were ultimately removed.
Rodan's awakening and battle with Monarch was one of the first sequences to go through previz. Outpost 56 restrained him with giant harpoon guns in this version, only for Monarch's own jets to blow them up so they could lure him towards Ghidorah. The animators based his fighting style on eagles, with The Third Floor supervisor Andrew Honacker describing him as a "drunken brawler" as well. His new roars were derived from recordings of owls, penguins, vultures, and some cranes Dougherty's mother filmed in her backyard.
Dougherty didn't originally plan to use any motion-capture for Rodan, but he decided to let Jason Liles have a try at the end of a day of filming. Sadly, we haven't found any images of that session, and the credits don't mention it either.
That's all she wrote for Godzilla's co-stars in "King of the Monsters." Check out the rest of the trio's Kaiju Profile if you haven't already… or if you have, maybe take a look at our MUTO profile! If you're in the mood for something a little different, you could watch our MonsterVerse timeline, presented from an in-universe perspective. To read up on more than what is covered in these videos, you can always check out wikizilla.org's pages… and for those asking when we'll be releasing updated profiles on the MonsterVerse Godzilla or Kong: they will be done after "Godzilla vs. Kong" is out on Blu-ray. With all of that said, thank you for watching all the way to the end. See ya!
