King Ghidorah

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King Ghidorah
Godzilla film series character
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First appearance Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)
Last appearance Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001), Godzilla 2 (2018)
Created by Tomoyuki Tanaka
Aliases Ghidrah
Ghidora
Monster Zero
Thousand Year-Old Dragon
Grand King Ghidorah[1]
King of Terror[1]

King Ghidorah (キングギドラ Kingu Gidora?) is a kaiju film monster 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 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, Orochi. 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 also 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, lightning-like "gravity beams" from its mouths and generating hurricane-force winds from its wings.[7]

Although usually portrayed as Godzilla's nemesis, the character's role was reversed in Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack. In addition to this, the version of King Ghidorah to appear in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah is used as a heroic defender of Japan once Emmy the Futurian repairs him with cybernetics, creating Mecha-King Ghidorah.

Appearances

Spin-off characters based on Ghidorah (although quadruped in appearance) were featured in other Toho films: "Desghidorah" (or Death Ghidorah) 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

Television

Video games

Literature

Music

  • Take Me To Your Leader is the second studio album by English hip hop artist Daniel Dumile (also known as MF DOOM)[12] 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

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Rebirth of Mothra III Toho 1998
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  6. ↑ David Kalat - Ghidorah: The Three Headed Monster, Classic Media R1 DVD Audio Commentary
  7. ↑ King Ghidorah character profile - Godzilla Movie Studio Tour (PC Game), 1998
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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