Phosphera

Phosphera Alternate names Fosphera (fan misspelled name) Planned for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire Concept history Phosphera → Mothra

Phosphera is a scrapped kaiju that was used as a placeholder for Mothra during the production of the 2024 Monsterverse film Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. While Phosphera was replaced with Mothra in the final film, her existence survives in the form of a wall carving inside the Iwi temple in the Hollow Earth.

Name

Phosphera's name appears to have been derived from the Greek Phōsphoros (Φωσφόρος), which translates to "light bringer". This word also refers to the god of the planet Venus in Greek mythology, as well as a name for the planet itself, and is similarly the origin for the name of the chemical element Phosphorus. Prior to her existence being confirmed by Adam Wingard in March 2024, Phosphera's name was misspelled as Fosphera by fans, following accounts of the monster's appearance in test screenings of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.

Design

In her depiction on the wall carving in the Hollow Earth, Phosphera is shown to be humanoid with avian influences, with a crest on her head, feathered wings, and a large, triangular tail.

History

• Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024) (mural engraving)

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

While Ilene Andrews team enters the Iwi Temple, several mural's of different monsters are seen, one of these including Phosphera, however this mural goes unacknowledged by the characters.  

Development

During the production of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Phosphera was used as a placeholder for what would become Mothra's appearance in the film. During the run-up to the film's release, a screenshot of Phosphera appearing in the sequence set at the Great Pyramid in Cairo, Egypt, began circulating online, prompting rumours that Phosphera was hastily replaced with Mothra after it was confirmed that the latter would appear in the film; this was disproven by Adam Wingard, who confirmed in an interview with The Wrap that Mothra had always been intended to appear in Phosphera's role, but Phosphera had been designed in the event that Legendary Pictures were unable to receive the license for Mothra: 'And there’s this false narrative online that this other character tested badly, and then we were like, ‘Let’s get Mothra.’ The plan was always Mothra. But we weren’t sure if we were going to be able to get Mothra. And once we tested the movie, we had the previous version of that, and by then, things had cleared up and we were able to do Mothra'. Phosphera's placement in the film survived past test viewings, with Mothra only replacing Phosphera very late in the post-production phase.

Gallery

• Fosphera Temple Carving.png

  In Temple Mural

References

This is a list of references for Phosphera. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: ^[1]

Comments

Showing 28 comments. When commenting, please remain respectful of other users, stay on topic, and avoid role-playing and excessive punctuation. Comments which violate these guidelines may be removed by administrators.

Loading comments...