King Ghidorah (Japanese: キングギドラ, Hepburn: Kingu Gidora) is a giant dragon-like extraterrestrial monster, or kaiju, in Toho’s Godzilla media franchise. It first appeared in the 1964 film Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, directed by Ishirō Honda. The character was initially created by Tomoyuki Tanaka, Eiji Tsuburaya, and Shinichi Sekizawa as an homage to the eight-headed mythological Japanese dragon Yamata no Orochi. Although the name of the character is officially trademarked by Toho as "King Ghidorah", the character was initially referred to as Ghidrah in some English markets.
Although King Ghidorah's design has remained largely consistent throughout its appearances (an armless, bipedal, golden and yellowish-scaled dragon with three heads, two fan-shaped wings, 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. The character is usually portrayed as the archenemy of Godzilla and a foe of Mothra, though it has had one appearance as an ally of the latter.
Despite 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.
Contents
Overview
Development
According to special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya's protégé Teruyoshi Nakano, the initial idea for Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, came from Tomoyuki Tanaka, who also created Godzilla. Tanaka's inspiration came from an illustration of the Lernaean Hydra in a book about Greek mythology and Orochi of Japanese folklore. Tanaka was enamored with the idea of Godzilla fighting a multi-headed serpent but considered seven or eight heads excessive; thus, the number of heads was reduced to three. The final version, designed by Akira Watanabe, was a three-headed dragon with large wings, two tails, and of extraterrestrial origin.
Toho also drew inspiration from the three-headed dragon Zmey Gorynych or King Dragon キング・ドラゴン (Kingu Doragon) in the Japanese version of the 1956 Soviet film Ilya Muromets, which had been distributed theatrically in Japan by Shintoho in March 1959. King Ghidorah's name is composed of "King" (キング, Kingu) and "Ghidorah". The "Ghidorah" part of the name comes from the pronunciation of the word "hydra" (Гидра, ˈɡʲidrɐ) in Russian, written as ヒドラ (Hidora) in Japanese.
Other sources of inspiration included mythological creatures such as the hydra, cerberus, unicorn, pegasus, and qilin.
Abilities
King Ghidorah primarily attacks by blasting "gravity beams" from its three mouths. These lightning-like attacks are roughly equal in power to Godzilla's atomic breath, and can be combined to form a stronger blast. King Ghidorah is seen using this ability in all its appearances except for Godzilla: The Planet Eater, where King Ghidorah's form is instead composed of energy resembling gravity beams. King Ghidorah has sometimes shown control over gravity in general, allowing the monster to fly even after losing a wing, crush and destroy thousands of planets (as well as spacefaring craft) sacrificed to it, and cause nearby objects in the environment to float due to its mere presence.
One trait that is seen in all versions of King Ghidorah is its great wings, which it uses to fly at Mach 3 (or 550 knots in Godzilla: King of the Monsters). In space, it can travel in a meteorite that produces magnetic fields, and fly at speeds exceeding Mach 400. Aside from this, it can use its wings to shield itself from enemy attacks (even Godzilla's atomic breath), project lightning strikes similar to its gravity beams, and generate supersonic shockwaves and strong winds. Ghidorah's electrical properties and generation of powerful bursts of wind cause yellow lightning storms to manifest in its vicinity. The resulting unnatural hurricane can tear through the stratosphere, raise tornadoes and waterspouts, and reach sustained wind speeds of 349 kilometres per hour (217 miles per hour), strengthening over time, breaking the Saffir–Simpson scale and exceeding the strength of any known storm on Earth. Although supplementary materials for Godzilla: King of the Monsters state that this happens when Ghidorah takes flight due to its hyper-tensile tendons, traces of gold in its scales, and electro-receptor molecular biology, in the film proper, the process starts as soon as Ghidorah awakens on the ground. As hinted by several scenes in the film and stated in the novelization, Ghidorah's hurricane furthermore disrupts and alters worldwide weather patterns to cause even more storm systems around the world. In the comic Kingdom Kong, which takes place in 2019, not even a year after Ghidorah's defeat by the end of King of the Monsters, the agency of Monarch reports that the storm has reached wind speeds of 644 kilometers (400 miles) per hour, with air pressure so dense that it triggers new cyclones every five minutes and creates waterspouts that reach down to the sea floor.
In physical combat, King Ghidorah rapidly attacks with kicks and stomps from the air, constriction with one or more necks and even by grabbing enemies to drop them from the sky.
Film history
Shōwa era (1964–1975)
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. Its attempt to destroy Earth is thwarted by the combined efforts of Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra.
Subsequent Shōwa era films portrayed Ghidorah as the pawn of various alien races seeking to subjugate Earth. King Ghidorah appears in the fifth and sixth episodes of the television series Zone Fighter, where it is revealed that it is supposedly a creation of the Garoga aliens, though it is left unclear as to whether this statement is true or not.
Screenwriter Shinichi Sekizawa insisted that the Ghidorah suit be fabricated using light-weight silicone-based materials in order to grant the wearer greater mobility. The final Ghidorah design was constructed by special effects artist Teizo Toshimitsu, who had initially painted it green in order to further differentiate it from Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra, but changed it to gold on the insistence of Eiji Tsuburaya, after his assistant noted that being a creature from Venus, the "gold planet", Ghidorah should be that color.
The monster suit itself was built by Akira Watanabe and worn by Shoichi Hirose. Hirose walked hunched over inside the Ghidorah costume, holding a metal bar for balance, while puppeteers would control its heads, tails and wings off-camera like a marionette. The monster's heads were each fitted with remotely controlled motors, which were connected to operators via a wire extending from the suit's backside.
Performing as Ghidorah proved challenging to Hirose, as he had to time his movements in a way that would not conflict with the separately operated heads and wings, as doing so would have resulted in the overhead wires tangling. Because of the suit's weight, it frequently snapped the overhead wires supporting it. Special effects were added as the creature is capable emitting destructive, lightning-like "gravity beams" from its mouths and generating hurricane-force winds from its wings.
Despite King Ghidorah's central role in the film's plot, the character was given little screen time, as Hirose had fallen out with special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya, who never forgave Hirose for accepting a Hollywood deal, and subsequently he hired Susumu Utsumi to play King Ghidorah after Invasion of Astro-Monster. In that film, King Ghidorah was given a darker shade of gold, and its movements both on land and in the air were more fluid than during Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster, as the special effects crew had at that point learned from the shortcomings of the previous film's depiction of the creature.
Heisei era (1991–1998)
In Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991), the creature is re-envisioned as a trio of diminutive genetically engineered creatures called Dorats (Japanese: ドラッツ, Hepburn: Drats) owned by a group of humans from the 23rd century known as the Equal Environment Earth Union, a group dedicated to equalizing the power of Earth's nations. Seeking to stop Japan's global economic dominance in their timeline by transforming the Dorats into King Ghidorah through nuclear exposure, the Earth Unionists plant the Dorats on Lagos Island during the 1954 H-bomb tests there. Prior to doing so, they remove the dinosaur that would ultimately become Godzilla from the island, so that King Ghidorah would be able to attack Japan without opposition. In 1992, the Earth Unionists unleash Ghidorah onto Japan, but it is defeated by a recreated Godzilla.
King Ghidorah's body stays under the Sea of Okhotsk for two centuries before being recovered by a defected Earth Unionist to make it a cyborg and sent back to 1992 as Mecha-King Ghidorah (Japanese: メカキングギドラ, Hepburn: Meka Kingu Gidora) in order to stop Godzilla's rampage.
The character's manes were deleted and replaced with horns, as it proved difficult for the special effects team to superimpose the manes into footage of people escaping the monster. Special effects director Koichi Kawakita had originally planned on having each of Ghidorah's heads fire differently colored beams, but this was ultimately scrapped in favor of the classic yellow color. This version of King Ghidorah was portrayed by Hurricane Ryu.
In Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993), Mecha-King Ghidorah's remains are salvaged by the United Nations Godzilla Countermeasures Center (UNGCC) and used to build Mechagodzilla.
In Rebirth of Mothra, a monster named Desghidorah appears, who heavily resembles King Ghidorah but has graphite black skin and a quadrupedal stance.
In Rebirth of Mothra III (1998), King Ghidorah is depicted as an extraterrestrial that landed on earth during the Cretaceous Period of the Mesozoic Era and wiped out the dinosaurs by draining them of their life energies. Ghidorah left Earth and returns in modern times to feed on human children. Mothra fails to defeat the monster and travels back to the Cretaceous in order to kill Ghidorah retroactively. Mothra defeats the younger Ghidorah, but the monster's severed tail allows it to regenerate back into its adult form in modern times. After hibernating from the Cretaceous era to the present day, aided by the ancient Primitive Mothra species, Mothra finally kills the monster by transforming into a new form: "Armor Mothra". This version of King Ghidorah was portrayed by Tsutomu Kitagawa, who would go onto play Godzilla in the Millennium era.
Millennium era (2001)
In Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, Ghidorah is portrayed as having been one of the three Guardians of Yamato, originating 1,000 years before the events of the film. Initially an antagonist, Ghidorah was imprisoned in Mount Fuji, only to be reawakened in 2001 to halt Godzilla's destruction of Tokyo. Ghidorah is defeated, but then revived and empowered by ally Mothra.
Director Shūsuke Kaneko had originally planned to use Varan as Godzilla's principal antagonist, but was pressured by Toho chairman Isao Matsuoka to use the more recognizable and profitable King Ghidorah, as the previous film in the franchise, Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, which featured an original and unfamiliar antagonist, was a box office and critical failure. In order to emphasize Ghidorah's heroic role in the movie, the creature's size was greatly reduced, and was portrayed by Akira Ohashi, who moved the creature's heads as hand puppets.
In Godzilla: Final Wars, a kaiju called Keizer Ghidorah (Japanese: カイザーギドラ, Hepburn: Kaizā Gidora) appears being based on Ghidorah as the true form of Monster X.
Reiwa era (2018–2021)
In the post-credits scene of Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle, Metphies, a priest of the Exif alien race, reveals to the main character, Haruo Sakaki, the name of the god his people worship: Ghidorah. The entity appears as the main antagonist of Godzilla: The Planet Eater.
The anime incarnation of Ghidorah is markedly different from its original portrayal, having evolved to the point of discarding its physical body in favor of a form of pure astral energy with two tails, two wings, and three necks that extend infinitely (at least 20 kilometers or 12 miles in length in the film), stretching out of three black hole-like portals to devour planets sacrificed to him by the Exif cult with its gravitational powers while its torso remains within an alternate dimension. In this state, King Ghidorah is completely invulnerable as long as its 'anchor' remains alive, and is capable of completely ignoring the laws of physics of the dimensions it invades, with its powers including intangibility, the manipulation of thermodynamics, gravity and time through time dilation.
In the anime, Ghidorah is the deity worshipped by the Exif under the titles of "Wings of Death", "Golden Demise", and "God of Destruction". It is summoned to Earth by the cult set up by Metphies in order to destroy Godzilla and devour Earth just as they fed him other planets they visited and converted to the Exif faith. Ghidorah overpowers Godzilla, who is left completely helpless while the interdimensional entity slowly erases it from reality. Metphies, who has linked himself to Ghidorah to serve as his witness to their reality, tries to convince Haruo to take his place as Ghidorah's link, since his thirst for revenge against Godzilla makes him the ideal host. Haruo refuses and breaks the link Metphies has to Ghidorah, causing the entity to be affected by conventional physical laws, allowing Godzilla to disperse, defeat, and effectively banish it back to its realm of reality for the time being while Metphies dies in the process. Some time later, Haruo receives a vision from Metphies, telling him that his lingering anger and desire to defeat Godzilla will ensure that Ghidorah will eventually be summoned again. With this, Haruo allows Godzilla to destroy him and all of Earth's remaining technology, sacrificing himself to prevent Ghidorah from returning to consume the Earth.
In 2019, King Ghidorah was used in Godzilla vs. Evangelion: The Real 4-D, Though this version of Ghidorah was nicknamed "Shin Ghidorah" or "Shin King Ghidorah". King Ghidorah first shows up in the ride when an explosion condensed into a new shape, released by Shin Godzilla. As it descends on the city and confronts Shin Godzilla, Shin Godzilla fires its atomic breath once again, but Ghidorah uses its gravity powers to deflect the beam in separate directions. Ghidorah then uses its gravity beams to lift several surrounding buildings into the air and throw them at Shin Godzilla, incapacitating it. The Evangelion Units attempt to fight King Ghidorah themselves, but are unable to stop its rampage. As they counter the dragon, Shin Godzilla rises back to its feet to continue battling the enemy. Ghidorah attacks Shin Godzilla, but it uses its dorsal plate beams to counter Ghidorah's assault and knock it back, before blasting Ghidorah with its atomic breath until it depletes itself and becomes immobilized.
Monsterverse (2019–2021)
In 2014, Legendary Pictures announced their acquisition of the licenses to Rodan, Mothra and King Ghidorah from Toho to use in their Monsterverse franchise. The trio were introduced in Kong: Skull Island in a post-credits scene depicting cave paintings of all three monsters, including Godzilla.
In June 2017, a press release confirmed Rodan, Mothra, and King Ghidorah would all be featured in Godzilla: King of the Monsters. In April 2018, Jason Liles, Alan Maxson, and Richard Dorton were cast to provide the motion capture performances of the heads of King Ghidorah, with Liles performing the middle head, Maxson performing the right head, and Dorton performing the left head. Other actors would perform the rest of King Ghidorah's body.
This version of Ghidorah stands 521 feet (158.8 meters) tall, weighing 141,056 tons with an unknown wingspan that allows him to fly at a maximum speed of 550 knots. Unlike previous incarnations of the character, Ghidorah's three heads are portrayed with independent personalities from each other, although Ghidorah overall still exhibits the inherent sadism of most incarnations: the middle head is the leader and more prominently sadistic than the other two, the right head is angry and thirsty for battle, and the left head is curious, distractable and more submissive - the heads are officially named Ichi, Ni and San respectively (meaning "One", "Two" and "Three" in Japanese). He is referred to as "Monster Zero" (a reference to Invasion of Astro-Monster) by the organization Monarch. According to Monarch's database, ancient civilizations called the monster "Ghidorah".
In this incarnation, King Ghidorah is portrayed as a rival apex predator to Godzilla that originated from another world, "[falling] from the stars" in ancient times, who actively seeks to usurp Godzilla's domination of the other monsters, proving to be different from most of the known titans due to being actively murderous and genocidal towards humans while threatening to destroy Earth's ecosphere. It's briefly speculated by the characters that Ghidorah's motives behind the destruction are xenoforming Earth to his own liking, though the novelization briefly suggests when discussing said theory that maybe Ghidorah has no higher end-goal than hatefully murdering every living thing that isn't him.
Referenced in various myths and said to be the inspiration for the beasts in humanity's various Chaoskampf stories, King Ghidorah is shown through ancient cave paintings to have fought against Godzilla and/or his species in the past before, but his nature scared ancient humans enough that the info contained in those myths was left incomplete. King Ghidorah ended up being frozen in Antarctica, discovered by Monarch who proceeded to study the monster until he was freed by eco-terrorists led by Alan Jonah. Godzilla is attracted to Ghidorah's activity and they engage in a short battle, but Ghidorah retreats when Monarch's military forces intervene; proceeding to Mexico once he senses Rodan being awoken from his own hibernation inside a volcano.
In other media
The various incarnations of King Ghidorah appeared in other media associated with the series, such as video games, television shows, and comics.
In video games
King Ghidorah's appearance in video games after 1991 usually utilize its Heisei design, combined with traits from other versions.
In the Pipeworks trilogy (Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee, Godzilla: Save the Earth, and Godzilla: Unleashed) and the Godzilla game for PlayStation 4, both King Ghidorah and its mechanized counterpart appear as playable characters and enemies.
The eighth level of Kyoei Toshi, a 2017 PS4 game where players, as civilians, must escape and survive kaiju attacks, features the Heisei versions of Godzilla and King Ghidorah shooting and biting at each other next to a building the player must enter to retrieve an important package.
In 2024, King Ghidorah and Hedorah were added as downloadable guest fighters in the indie game GigaBash, coming two years after Gigan, Godzilla, Mechagodzilla (specifically "Kiryu", the Millennium Era version), and Destoroyah were introduced as DLCs to the game. Although presented with its Heisei appearance, King Ghidorah also includes traits from its Showa and Monsterverse counterparts in attacks, taunts, and backstory (as it is stated to be an alien invader).
As of 2026, the mobile game Godzilla: Battle Line includes Desghidorah, Keizer Ghidorah, Mecha-King Ghidorah and all versions of the standard King Ghidorah (including the one from Godzilla the Ride: Giant Monsters Ultimate Battle) except the Showa version.
King Ghidorah appears as a figurine in the limited-time Godzilla DLC for Dave the Diver, which ran from May 23 to November 22, 2024.
Television
Stock footage of King Ghidorah from Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster was used in four episodes of Courage the Cowardly Dog: Courage in the Big Stinkin' City, The Tower of Dr. Zalost, Fishy Business and Nowhere TV. Mostly serving a small role in harmless jumpscares and background footage, the kaiju briefly shoots fire at Courage through a television.
Appearances
King Ghidorah appeared in a brief piece of stock footage in Terror of Mechagodzilla. The mechanical head of Mecha-King Ghidorah appears briefly in the opening of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II. Spin-off characters based on King Ghidorah (although quadrupedal in appearance) were featured in other Toho films: Desghidorah in Rebirth of Mothra and Keizer Ghidorah in Godzilla: Final Wars. A post-credits scene in Kong: Skull Island depicts cave paintings of Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra and King Ghidorah. It was implied that King Ghidorah took over Mechagodzilla's consciousness in Godzilla vs. Kong.
Films
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)
Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965)
Destroy All Monsters (1968)
Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)
Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993)
Rebirth of Mothra III (1998)
Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)
Godzilla: Final Wars (2004; toy)
Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle (2018)
Godzilla: The Planet Eater (2018)
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
Godzilla Minus Zero (2026)
Television
Zone Fighter (1973)
Godzilla Island (1997 - 1998)
Godzilland (1992 - 1993)
Godziban (present)
Video games
Godzilla: Monster of Monsters! (NES - 1988)
Godzilla (Game Boy - 1990)
Godzilla 2: War of the Monsters (NES - 1991)
Battle Soccer: Field no Hasha (SNES - 1992)
Super Godzilla (SNES - 1993)
Kaijū-ō Godzilla / King of the Monsters, Godzilla (Game Boy - 1993)
Godzilla: Battle Legends (Turbo Duo - 1993)
Godzilla: Monster War / Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters (Super Famicom - 1994)
Godzilla Giant Monster March (Game Gear - 1995)
Godzilla Trading Battle (PlayStation - 1998)
Godzilla Generations: Maximum Impact (Dreamcast - 1999)
Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee (GCN, Xbox - 2002/2003)
Godzilla: Domination! (GBA - 2002)
Godzilla: Save the Earth (Xbox, PS2 - 2004)
Godzilla: Unleashed (Wii, PS2 - 2007)
Godzilla Unleashed: Double Smash (NDS - 2007)
Godzilla (PS3 - 2014 PS3 PS4 - 2015)
City Shrouded in Shadow (PS4 - 2017)
Godzilla Defense Force (2019)
Literature
Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (manga 1991)
Godzilla Saves America: A Monster Showdown in 3-D! (1996)
Godzilla 2000 (novel 1997)
Godzilla vs. the Robot Monsters (novel 1998)
Godzilla vs. the Space Monster (novel 1998)
Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters (comic 2011 - 2012)
Godzilla: Gangsters & Goliaths (comic 2011)
Godzilla: Legends (comic 2011 - 2012)
Godzilla: The Half-Century War (comic 2012 - 2013)
Godzilla: Rulers of Earth (comic 2013 - 2015)
Godzilla: Cataclysm (comic 2014)
Godzilla in Hell (comic 2015)
Godzilla: Oblivion (comic 2016)
Godzilla Rivals (comic 2022)
Godzilla vs. The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (comic 2022)
Cultural impact
British-American hip hop artist Daniel Dumile (known primarily as MF Doom) released the album Take Me To Your Leader (2003) using the artist name "King Geedorah". The album's cover art features an image resembling King Ghidorah and the album features samples from the English versions of various Godzilla films. Doom also went under "King Geedorah" when he was in the group Monsta Island Czars. In 2022, a species of branching worm was named after the monster, Ramisyllis kingghidorahi, discovered in the waters around Sado Island. According to scientist Maria Teresa Aguado, the name was selected as "King Ghidorah is a branching fictitious animal that can regenerate its lost ends, so we thought this was an appropriate name for the new species of branching worm".
Reception
The character has been well-received and is considered to be the most famous enemy of Godzilla. IGN listed the creature as #2 on their "Top 10 Japanese Movie Monsters" list. Complex listed the character as #4 on its "The 15 Most Badass Kaiju Monsters of All Time" list, calling it "iconic" and saying that it "... simply looks cooler than some of the more powerful bugs, crabs, and robots."
In his review of Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, Ethan Reed of Toho Kingdom praised King Ghidorah, calling it "a fantastic addition to the franchise" and "no less than pure evil, a relentless force of destruction that wipes out the life of entire planets just for the sake of it" and concluded that "King Ghidorah is not only one [of] the best characters in the series, but one [of] the best movie villains as well." Similar views were expressed in Paste, which listed Ghidorah as #5 on its "10 Best Movie Dragons", describing it as "probably the deadliest beast in all of Godzilla lore".
Godzilla historian Steve Ryfle, however, has criticized Ghidorah's design in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, citing its stiff movements and recycled Rodan roar, as well as noting that it did not deviate enough from Eiji Tsuburaya's original design.
Following the release of King of the Monsters, Ghidorah's left head has gained the nickname "Kev/Kevin". This was following an announcement by Mike Dougherty who released a tweet with the names of Ghidorah's head. Due to his seemingly unique personality, Kevin has become the subject of memes.