
Subsequent Shōwa era films would portray Ghidorah as the pawn of various alien races seeking to subjugate Earth. Its attempt to destroy Earth is thwarted by the combined efforts of Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra. In its debut film, Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, Ghidorah is portrayed as an ancient extraterrestrial entity responsible for the destruction of the Venusian civilization, five thousand years before the film's events. Other sources of inspiration included mythological creatures such as the hydra, unicorn, pegasus, and qilin. King Ghidorah's name is composed of "King" ( キング, Kingu) and "Ghidorah." The "Ghidorah" part of King Ghidorah's name comes from the pronunciation of the word "hydra" (Гидра, ˈɡʲidrɐ) in Russian, written as ヒドラ ( Hidora) in Japanese. Toho also drew inspiration from the three-headed dragon Zmey Gorynych or King Dragon キング・ドラゴン ( Kingu Doragon) in Japanese version from the 1956 Soviet film Ilya Muromets, which had been distributed theatrically in Japan by Shintoho in March 1959. The final version was a three-headed dragon with large wings, two tails and of extraterrestrial origin. Tanaka was enamored with the idea of Godzilla fighting a multi-headed serpent, but considered seven or eight heads to be too excessive, and thus the number of heads was reduced to three. Tanaka's inspiration came from illustration of the Lernaean Hydra in a book about Greek Mythology, and Orochi of Japanese folklore. The initial idea for Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster came from Tomoyuki Tanaka, who also created Godzilla. King Ghidorah appears as the primary antagonist in the 2019 film Godzilla: King of the Monsters and mentioned in the 2021 film Godzilla vs. ĭespite rumors that Ghidorah was meant to represent the threat posed by China, which had at the time of the character's creation just developed nuclear weapons, director Ishirō Honda denied the connection and stated that Ghidorah was simply a modern take on the dragon Yamata no Orochi. The character is usually portrayed as an archenemy of Godzilla and a foe of Mothra, though it has had one appearance as an ally of the latter. Īlthough King Ghidorah's design has remained largely consistent throughout its appearances (an armless, bipedal, golden and yellowish-scaled dragon with three heads, two wings in the shape of fans to fly and two tails), its origin story has varied from being an extraterrestrial planet-destroying dragon, a genetically engineered monster from the future, a guardian monster of ancient Japan, or a god from another dimension. Although the name of the character is officially trademarked by Toho as "King Ghidorah", the character was originally referred to as Ghidorah or Ghidrah in some English markets. King Ghidorah ( キングギドラ, Kingu Gidora) is a fictional monster, or kaiju, which first appeared in Ishirō Honda's 1964 film Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster. Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964) A production image of the first King Ghidorah suit, not fully painted
