When Godzilla returns to the big screen later this year, he will be fighting in a battle royal opposite monsters both good and evil for dominion over the Earth and the title King of the Monsters. Yet while Mothra, Rodan and King Ghidorah will be appearing in the film, the upcoming Godzilla sequel won’t be including every iconic monster from the character’s 65-year history. Speaking about monsters that aren’t in the movie, O’Shea Jackson Jr., who plays one of the soldiers in the film and is a big Godzilla fan, recently said,
I’m gonna’ tell you about my most feared Godzilla monster. One time as a kid, Godzilla was about to die and it was Gigan. Gigan is a problem. There’s like – there’s no way Godzilla should have won. Gigan is a real problem, so I hope we don’t see him, because this is going to be way worse nowadays. But you know, MechaGodzilla. MechaGodzilla is like a hidden gem right now.
We’ve speculated about what classic monsters might make an appearance in Godzilla: King Of The Monsters, with Gigan and MechaGodzilla among them, but if O’Shea Jackson Jr. is to be believed here, those two definitely won’t be part of the festivities (i.e. apocalyptic destruction) this time around. As the expressed to Collider, though, things would be way worse for Godzilla if those two were to show up.
The actor has distinct memories of Gigan, who is one of Godzilla’s most formidable and crazy-looking opponents. An alien cyborg kaiju, Gigan has deadly hooked claws on his appendages, a spiked tail, and vertical spikes that go all the way up his torso. He also has a cybernetic visor for an eye, out of which he can shoot lasers.
Gigan basically looks like he was designed by an 8-year-old: ridiculous looking with lots and lots of weapons. Aliens originally deployed him alongside King Ghidorah as part of a conquest of Earth, but that won’t be the case this time around it seems, as the trailer has shown Ghidorah frozen in ice and intimated that all the Titans are Earth’s pre-human inhabitants.
As for MechaGodzilla, he is one of the more popular Godzilla monsters, at times being both heroic and villainous. He has been depicted as an alien weapon or as a human creation meant to fight Godzilla. MechaGodzilla recently had a big cameo in Ready Player One and as you saw in that film, this robotic Godzilla is the War Machine of the kaiju, with missiles, lasers, energy beams and the power to fly.
Interestingly, O’Shea Jackson Jr. said that MechaGodzilla is “a hidden gem.” He could just mean that he simply likes the monster and can’t wait to see him utilized at some point in the future, but perhaps there is more to it. O’Shea Jackson has also teased that Godzilla: King of the Monsters will have Easter Eggs, so maybe there will be some reference to MechaGodzilla blueprints, or something of that sort.
It is probably for the best that Gigan and MechaGodzilla won’t be in Godzilla: King Of The Monsters. Godzilla has his hands plenty full with King Ghidorah, and Gigan and MechaGodzilla historically have more fantastical stories that don’t exactly mesh with the prehistoric mythology the MonsterVerse seems to be going for. Perhaps eventually they could be given new origins, though, while maintaining their looks and names.
It also makes sense for some iconic monsters to sit out Godzilla: King of the Monsters to save them for future movies in the franchise. King Kong and Godzilla will face off in 2020, but as they are both good monsters, they will presumably have to unite to face a common enemy by that film’s end - and perhaps that enemy could be either alien or man-made.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters stomps into theaters on May 31st. Check out our 2019 Release Schedule to keep track of what’s coming out when for the rest of this year.
