Legendary Pictures
What type of animal is Godzilla, what does its name mean, and why has it changed color?
Godzilla vs Kong is finally here, and one of the biggest questions about it so far is “How come Godzilla’s pink now?” Here are some things about the giant monster you might not know.
Godzilla has been around for over half a century now, ever since the giant monster made its debut in 1954. Since then, the creature has undergone many changes, and seen many versions of itself debut in theaters for just as many generations of fans. And for almost ten years now, it’s also been at the height of its popularity thanks to movies like ‘Shin Godzilla’, the amazing ‘Godzilla Minus One′, and of course, the ‘Monsterverse’ series of films that is getting a new movie this week.
But as can be seen in the trailer above, as well as all of the promotional art for ‘Godzilla x Kong: A New Empire’, it seems like the King of the Monsters has had a literal glow-up. Sporting a brighter shade of scales and pink, crystal-like spikes along its back. So what is going on, and why did they change its color?
Why is Godzilla pink in ‘Godzilla x Kong: A New Empire’?
At the time of writing, the next ‘Monsterverse’ movie is still one day away from releasing in theaters, so we don’t know the exact reasons for Godzilla’s new colors. However, there are many reasons why the change could have happened. To begin with, this isn’t the first time Godzilla has sported a pink look:
Back during the end of the ‘90s and the start of the 2000s, Toho presented a new design for the giant monster that remained for two of the monster’s films: ‘Godzilla 2000: Millennium’ (pictured above) and ‘Godzilla vs Megaguirus’ (below). These were the two first films of what has come to be known as the “Millenium Era” of Godzilla films, which is actually comprised of 6 films. The design (nicknamed by fans “MireGoji”) was pretty radical at the time and was meant to attract the attention of fans due to it being a return from retirement of the series.
Of course, as tends to happen with the creature, its design was changed again for the next movies. But why is it back again? Lorewise, the Monsterverse has presented several reasonings behind the changes Godzilla has had ever since its debut in 2014. In ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’, the kaiju got supercharged by both a nuclear explosion and the powers of Mothra, resulting in a glowing red “burning Godzilla”. After literally cooling off, he returned bigger and badder in’ Godzilla vs Kong’.
In the trailers, we’ve seen Godzilla covered in ice, seemingly hibernating before bursting out with its new pink look. We don’t know exactly what might have happened after the brawl with MechaGodzilla, but it’d be a safe bet to say that perhaps the King of the Monsters chose to rest and heal from the grueling battle, in the meantime evolving beyond what he had.
It could be that its powers have been concentrated to become even more powerful, perhaps explaining why it looks slightly smaller (not towering over kong like in the last movie) and noticeably slimmer. Or it could simply be that the studio decided to make a callback to how it looked in the Millenium Era, which is beloved by many fans, surely including those in charge of the Monsterverse if you take into consideration that ‘Godzilla 2000: Millennium’ released 25 years ago almost to the date.
So what exactly is Godzilla?
Beyond being a giant all-mighty lizard, Godzilla has had many origin stories throughout its existence, and almost as many personalities and identities. Just as its many designs, these have been changed and retconned, but below you can find a few of them.
- In the original 1954 movie, Godzilla is believed to be an unknown prehistoric reptile that linked the dinosaurs with sea creatures of today, awoken, enhanced, and mutated by the hydrogen bombs tested by the Americans during World War II. It was also suggested that other Godzillas existed, explaining its multiple deaths.
- During the Heisei era, Godzilla was an ancient species of dinosaur called the “Godzillasaurus” that had survived extinction and was living on Lagos Island. Nuclear tests performed in a nearby island mutated the creature.
- In the same era, aliens known as Futurians traveled to the past, took the Godzillasaurus from Lagos Island, and dropped it in the Bering Sea. But the mutation still happened due to a soviet nuclear submarine.
- In the 1998 American movie, an iguana egg was exposed to French nuclear tests at the Moruroa Atoll. It then grew over 30 years and attacked New York.
- In Shin Godzilla, it was a prehistoric sea creature that evolved to withstand radiation due to exposure to nuclear waste during the 1950s, causing constant mutation and evolution until 60 years laters it became strong enough to step on land.
- In the Legendary Monsterverse, Godzilla is an ancient lifeform from the Permian Period that survived several extinction events by consuming geothermal radiation and hibernating at the bottom of the sea. It was always the alpha predator, and acted instinctively to maintain balance in nature.
Is it it? A he? A she? This also changes constantly. In Japanese, Godzilla is treated solely as a creature, with characters referring to it as “it”. In the Monsterverse, Godzilla is clearly categorized as male, even taking on the title of King through dominance. In others, Godzilla is a clear female, being able to lay and hatch eggs to produce more Godzillas.
As for what its name means, the original Japanese name “Gojira” (romanized from the original ゴジラ) is a mixture of the words gorilla (ゴリラ or “gorira”) and whale (クジラ or “Kujira”). These were chosen to symbolize both the strength of the creatures, their massive size, and curiously as a reference to the creature that inspired the movie, King Kong, who was a massive gorilla. The English name of “Godzilla” was actually also created by Toho when the company wanted to bring the creature to the rest of the world, with the intention of bringing to mind its awesome power (God), its lizard-like features (Zilla), and once again, gorilla.