King Ghidorah

Godzilla film series character
King Ghidorah
Alias	Ghidrah Ghidora Monster Zero Thousand Year-Old Dragon Grand King Ghidorah[1]
First appearance	Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)
Latest appearance	Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)
Created by	Tomoyuki Tanaka

King Ghidorah (キングギドラ, Kingu Gidora) is a kaiju that first appeared in the Toho's 1964 film Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster. Although Toho officially trademarks the character as King Ghidorah^[2] the character is usually referred to as Ghidrah in English markets.^[3][4]

Overview

Development

The Lernaean Hydra was a direct inspiration for King Ghidorah.

The initial idea for King Ghidorah came from Tomoyuki Tanaka, who also created Godzilla. Tanaka's inspiration came from an illustration of the Lernaean Hydra in a book about Greek Mythology, and the Eight-Headed Dragon of Japanese folklore. Tanaka was enamored with the idea of Godzilla fighting a multi-headed serpent, but considered 7-8 heads to be excessive, with the number of heads being reduced to three.^[5]

The final version was an armless, three-headed dragon with large wings, two tails and of extraterrestrial origin. The monster costume itself was designed by Akira Watanabe, and worn by Shoichi Hirose, who played King Kong in Toho's King Kong vs. Godzilla. Hirose walked hunched over inside the Ghidorah costume, holding a metal bar for balance, while puppeteers would control its heads, tails and wings off-camera like a marionette.^[6] Special effects were added as the creature is capable emitting destructive "magnetic force beams" from its mouths and generating hurricane-force winds from its wings.^[7]

Although usually portrayed as Godzilla's arch nemesis, the character's role was reversed in Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack.

Appearances

Other characters based on Ghidorah (although quadruped in appearance) were featured in other Toho films: "Desghidorah" in Rebirth of Mothra and "Keizer Ghidorah" in Godzilla: Final Wars. In July 2014, Legendary Pictures confirmed to have obtained the rights to King Ghidorah, Mothra, and Rodan from Toho and plan to feature them in their sequel.^[8][9]

Films

• Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)
• Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965)
• Destroy All Monsters (1968)
• Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)
• Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)
• Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993)
• Rebirth of Mothra III (1998)
• Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)
• Godzilla 2 (2018)

Television

• Zone Fighter (1973)
• Godzilla Island (1997-1998)

Video games

• Godzilla: Monster of Monsters (NES - 1988)
• Godzilla / Godzilla-Kun: Kaijuu Daikessen (Game Boy - 1990)
• Godzilla 2: War of the Monsters (NES - 1991)
• Battle Soccer: Field no Hasha (SNES - 1992)
• Super Godzilla (SNES - 1993)
• Kaijū-ō Godzilla / King of the Monsters, Godzilla (Game Boy - 1993)
• Godzilla: Battle Legends (Turbo Duo - 1993)
• Godzilla: Monster War / Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters (Super Famicom - 1994)
• Godzilla Giant Monster March (Game Gear - 1995)
• Godzilla Trading Battle (PlayStation - 1998)
• Godzilla Generations: Maximum Impact (Dreamcast - 1999)
• Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee (GCN, Xbox - 2002/2003)
• Godzilla: Domination! (GBA - 2002)
• Godzilla: Save the Earth (Xbox, PS2 - 2004)
• Godzilla: Unleashed (Wii, PS2 - 2007)
• Godzilla Unleashed: Double Smash (NDS - 2007)
• Godzilla: The Game (PS3 - 2014 PS3 PS4 - 2015)

Literature

• Godzilla: Rulers of Earth (2013)

Music

• Take Me To Your Leader is the second studio album by American hip hop artist Daniel Dumile (also known as MF DOOM)^[10] and was released under the alias "King Geedorah" on June 17, 2003. The cover features a figure very similar to the appearance of King Ghidorah.

References