Godzilla vs. Kong: Here’s Why the Director Changed Mechagodzilla’s Design

Much like the titular characters themselves, the debut of Mechagodzilla in the MonsterVerse for Godzilla vs. Kong saw a beast who had embraced iconic elements of previous designs, yet updated for this new incarnation of the franchise, with director Adam Wingard recently detailing that it was his disappointment in seeing Transformers films on the big screen that motivated the creature’s design in the new film. With previous iterations of the figure largely looking merely like a metal version of Godzilla, the new take on the character is much more streamlined, allowing the action-packed sequences to be easier to comprehend than just a bunch of metal moving across the screen.

“I remember watching the third Transformers movie in the theater,” Wingard detailed to Inverse. “It was one of those things where I was with a date, and we got there late, and the only seats that were available were literally in the front row. And so I’m sitting there watching Transformers 3 in the front row, and I couldn’t tell what the hell was going on.”

He continued, “The Transformers, they just looked like metal. They looked like a plane crash. So I thought, that’s the thing I wanted to avoid. They were too complex. There are too many moving parts, and I couldn’t latch on to anything. Nothing felt iconic with that Transformers design.”

While Wingard might not have been a fan of the designs of that big-screen outing, he did note how big a fan he was of the series and some of their original designs, which influenced his inspiration for Mechagodzilla.

“I just always loved the simplicity of the Transformers designs,” the filmmaker confessed. “So I tried to create a look to the character that was punchy and just had a bit more simplicity. There’s an immediacy to his shape and outline.”

Additionally, as if getting to helm the film that finally pits Godzilla against Kong in this MonsterVerse, designing Mechagodzilla allowed him to make his own, unique contributions to the history of the franchise.

“As a director, it’s exciting because I can finally put my stamp on the monsters,” Wingard recalled. “Godzilla and Kong had already been redesigned for the MonsterVerse.”

Godzilla vs. Kong is currently in theaters and streaming on HBO Max. There are no announced plans for what could be next in the MonsterVerse.

What did you think of Mechagodzilla’s design? Let us know in the comments below!