'Godzilla: King of the Monsters' Director Reveals How Film’s Monsters Were Made

Godzilla: King of the Monsters is a few months out from theaters, and the sequel is churning out all sorts of hype. The monster flick is slated to bring back Japan's most famous kaiju to audiences, giving them the chance to see what Godzilla has been up to since his last big-screen outing. However, the creature won't be stepping out alone, and a new interview is breaking down how the sequel's big monsters came to be.

Recently, Cinema Today JP did an interview with director Mike Dougherty on all things Godzilla. It was there the filmmaker got in-depth about how his team design creatures like Mothra, and fan-site Omega Gormaru was able to translate the specific notes for international readers.

As it turns out, Dougherty didn't want to alter the design of Godzilla too much following his solo outing in 2014. "With Godzilla, I really liked what [director Gareth Edwards] had done in the previous film with Godzilla's look, so I just wanted to make tiny tweaks, like changing his back spikes to look like the 1954 Godzilla. These in particular were taken right off the back of the original 1954 Godzilla. So I took Photoshop, and just photoshopped these spikes onto the back of Gareth's film. I made the feet and the claws a bit bigger, because a predatory creature like him would have very powerful sharp claws to tear into his prey," he explained.

As for the film's other beasts, Dougherty confessed he looked to the ground when he needed inspiration for Rodan and his aesthetic. "I tried to come up with a look for him that felt like something that could have crawled out of a volcano. So, [in] the look of his scales, even the color of his body, there are elements of volcanic rock, because I wanted to create a creature that looked like it could live inside a volcano if it had to," the director said. "But also, it's meant to look like something Mother Nature could have created."

On the other hand, Mothra's design was one inspired by classic elegance, but the sequel's crew wanted to make sure the classic kaiju could go a couple rounds if challenged to a fight.

"For Mothra, I tried to capture the power of the original Mothra with her color palette, making sure that she had the eye spots on her wings. The eye spots are designed to look like Godzilla's eyes, because I wanted to create a connection between Mothra and Godzilla. I tried to make her look more like a traditional insect that exists in the world, but also gave her slightly larger feet because I wanted her to be able to defend herself and fight with the other creatures that she had to, and if she didn't have longer legs or claws, she'd be too vulnerable," Dougherty stressed.

"If you look at moths in nature, they do have very long legs, so I tried to create something that was beautiful, and feminine, and elegant, and looked like a true goddess, but also dangerous if she had to be."

Finally, Ghidorah rounded up the kaiju gang and provided Dougherty an outlet to create not one but three dragons. After all, the multi-headed beast isn't a one-note monster, and the filmmaker said he wanted each of the kaiju's head to have a distinct look and personality.

"The fun of [Ghidorah] was trying to create a dragon which was unique but clearly Ghidorah. So his wings are different, but also something that could take flight and own the skies if he had to. The other fun thing we did is we gave each head its own different personality, so each head is a little bit different than the other one. I like to think that the center head is the smartest, alpha head. Of the three, he's the one who's really in charge, and the other two are sort of his lackeys," the director explained.

"Again, each creature had to be unique from the other, but also pay tribute to all the creatures that came before. We worked closely with Toho to make sure it lived up to their standards, so that's why he has to have two spiked spiked tails and his golden colors. To do that, we looked at a lot of different animals in nature, so different reptiles, different lizards and snakes, cobras, especially king cobras, [and studied] their scales to craft something that looks like it could be realistic. The big rule for all the creatures was, if they discovered the fossils for these creatures, you would believe that they could have existed."

Well, how do you think Godzilla: King of the Monsters looks so far? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!

Directed by Michael Dougherty, Godzilla: King of the Monsters stars Millie Bobby Brown, Vera Farmiga, Sally Hawkins, Kyle Chandler, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Ken Watanabe, Bradley Whitford, among many other talents. The film is currently scheduled to hit theaters May 31, 2019 with Godzilla vs. Kong scheduled for a 2020 release after.