Godzilla vs. AstroGodzilla

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Godzilla vs. AstroGodzilla
Early concept art for Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla
Planned 1994
Concept history Godzilla vs. Emperor Ghidorah
Godzilla vs. AstroGodzilla
Godzilla vs. NeoGodzilla
Godzilla Super Wars
Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla

Godzilla vs. AstroGodzilla (ゴジラVSアストロゴジラ,   Gojira tai Asutorogojira) is an early concept for the sixth entry in the Heisei Godzilla series, and the predecessor to Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla.

Development

With production on TriStar Pictures' Godzilla delayed, Toho's initial plans to kill off the character at the end of what became Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II to make room for the Hollywood version shifted. Toho opted to continue the Heisei series, with one early idea for the tentative Godzilla 6 featuring an alien King Ghidorah dubbed Emperor Ghidorah battling Godzilla, an idea that had previously been considered for the fourth Heisei film. However, due to the upcoming Orochi, the Eight-Headed Dragon also featuring a multi-headed dragon, the Emperor Ghidorah idea was discarded.

Regardless, Toho continued to pursue an extraterrestrial foe for the King of the Monsters and the idea was retooled into an alien doppelganger of Godzilla. The alien Godzilla clone was tentatively named AstroGodzilla. Director of special effects Koichi Kawakita pushed to include Moguera in the story due to his fondness for The Mysterians. This concept was considerably more ambitious than the final product would be, featuring an army of giant alien dragonflies controlled by AstroGodzilla and Mothra returning as Godzilla's ally along with Moguera. Shinichiro Kobayashi, writer of Godzilla vs. Biollante's original story, submitted a draft which built on this concept, though it made Godzilla's alien clone, now dubbed Crystal Godzilla, crystalline in origin.[1]

The lukewarm box office performance of Orochi, the Eight-Headed Dragon led to cost-cutting measures being taken in order to reduce the scale of the project. Another draft, Godzilla Super Wars, replaced Moguera with a rebuilt Mechagodzilla and Garuda in order to save the costs of creating a new mecha, additionally giving the antagonist monster its final name, SpaceGodzilla. Kawakita eventually won out and convinced Toho to include Moguera in the final story, which removed SpaceGodzilla's alien dragonfly minions entirely.[2][3]

Plot

Godzilla battles against an extraterrestrial clone of himself named AstroGodzilla, born from Biollante's cells which escaped into outer space, who leads an invading army to Earth. Crystalline formations crash land in Japan, which split open to reveal a swarm of crystalline giant dragonflies under the control of the new monster. This army of space insects attacks LittleGodzilla, with Godzilla arising to defend his adopted son. Despite his best efforts, the insects abscond with the youngster and bring him to a crystalline tower and fortress being constructed at Mount Aso, with the insects' master doing so to lure Godzilla into a confrontation. AstroGodzilla additionally takes over the minds of LittleGodzilla and G-Force psychic Miki Saegusa, with G-Force having to team up with Godzilla and the returning Mothra in a siege of the crystalline fortress. As the defense forces fend off the insect army, G-Force's newest mecha MOGUERA, Godzilla, and Mothra storm the core of the fortress and defeat the invader to save Miki and LittleGodzilla.

References

This is a list of references for Godzilla vs. AstroGodzilla. 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]

  1. Nomura, Norihiro (7 August 2014). Godzilla Dictionary [New Edition]. Kasakura Publishing. ISBN 4773087250.
  2. LeMay, John (15 June 2017). The Big Book of Japanese Giant Monster Movies: The Lost Films. Bicep Books. pp. 234–235. ISBN 978-1548145255.
  3. LeMay, John (March 2014). G-FAN #105.

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Unmade
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Era Icon - SpaceGodzilla.png
MOGUERA
LittleGodzilla
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