Godzilla: King of the Monsters introduced fans to new versions of TOHO’s famous Kaiju for Legendary’s big Monsterverse, and even gave Godzilla a few new layers that were not seen in the original film. Director behind the big sequel, Mike Dougherty, shared a few details behind the scenes of the film during a special watch along event for the film with Nerdist and explained much of the philosophy behind the expanded take on Godzilla we saw in the sequel. This Godzilla was weaker, and more emotionally available. We even managed to see the Titan’s lair!
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As for why we actually saw a few characters venture into the Hollow Earth and find Godzilla’s lair, Dougherty noted on Twitter how this moment in particular was in order to show a new side of the Titan that we had not seen before, “I wanted to include a sequence where we really peeled back the layers of Godzilla’s mythology and depict him in a way and in a place we’ve never seen before, so finally entering his lair made sense. After all, every dragon has a cave, and we’ve never seen Godzilla’s.”
As for what went into designing Godzilla’s lair, there were different ships from different eras to better illustrate just how long Godzilla has been around, “We littered the ruins with the wreckage of ships from different eras, from vikings to modern day battleships, as if they were pulled into the Hollow Earth via vortex, or because they were snacks for Godzilla.”
The main crux of the Godzilla lair scene in the sequel was a major sacrifice and bonding moment for Ken Watanabe’s Dr. Serizawa, and Dougherty revealed that this was actually a reference to the original 1954 Godzilla film as a deliberately opposite fate for the new version of the scientist, “Serizawa’s sacrifice was purposely designed to be the inverse of Serizawa’s death from the 1954 film, where he sacrificed himself to kill Godzilla. In my mind, this version of the character is correcting that mistake by saving his god.”
What did you think about seeing Godzilla’s lair in Godzilla: King of the Monsters? What were your favorite moments from the big sequel? What are you hoping to see in the next film, Godzilla vs. Kong? A return to the lair maybe? More of this kind of Godzilla? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or talk to me directly about all things anime and other cool things @Valdezology on Twitter!
