Godzilla x Kong Director Picks Destoroyah and Godzilla Jr. for MonsterVerse

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995)

Godzilla vs. Destoroyah is “one of my top Godzilla movies.” Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’s director, Adam Wingard, made the revelation when he was asked about the possibility of BabyGodzilla, aka Godzilla Jr., showing up in a MonsterVerse sequel. The filmmaker tiptoed around the question, but he was willing to give a roundabout answer to the inquiry. Wingard said in an interview with DiscussingFilm:

“I’ll say this,
one of my top Godzilla movies is Godzilla vs. Destoroyah.
The reason it’s one of my favorite films is I don’t think any other Godzilla movie, maybe outside of Minus One and the 1954 original,
has ever hit such emotional highs.
The ending of that film, when Godzilla Jr. dies and, subsequently, Godzilla f—ing melts to death, is
so poignant and also beautiful in the way that they do it.”

He added:

It’s worth noting that BabyGodzilla and Minilla, who first appeared in Son of Godzilla (1967), are not the same character. Toho wanted director Takao Okawara to include Godzilla’s son in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993), but he didn’t care for Minilla. So, the filmmaker came up with a more modern-day version, which became known as BabyGodzilla and later Godzilla Jr.

Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995) is regarded as one of the best Gojira films ever made. And while it only has six reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, at the time of this writing, Destoroyah registers a perfect 100% on the Tomatometer, while its audience score of 93% comes from 100+ ratings.

The Death of Godzilla and the Kaiju’s Son?

Nearly 30 years ago, Toho Co., Ltd. — the entertainment company behind Godzilla — tried to pull a fast one. True, Godzilla vs. Destoroyah is one of the best Godzilla films, but in that 1995 movie, Toho played off the ending of the film as though both Godzilla and Godzilla Jr. died! Apparently, though, Toho wasn’t fooling anyone, especially Norman England. England is the director of the 2008 documentary Bringing Godzilla Down to Size: The Art of Japanese Special Effects. And England never thought for a second that Toho killed off the King of the Monsters. England said in an interview (per Toho Kingdom):

“None of my friends believed this was going to be the last Godzilla movie. It was obviously PR talk. But a lot of us felt, ‘Well, let’s just get into the spirit of the thing.’ And there was a great deal of publicity for Destoroyah: gas station ads; TV commercials with Godzilla in them; Momoko Kochi, from the first Godzilla (1954), was appearing on the morning shows.”

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Showing off an impressive collection of Bandai-made action figures, Godzilla Island showcased a large array of Kaijus and action-packed stories.

England continued:

“I was living in Osaka at the time and went to a suit display at Banpaku Memorial Park, where Expo ’70 had been held. All of that was really fun. [The late Heisei films in Japan were] more than just the movies. The movies were a little anticlimactic compared to what went on around them.”

Godzilla’s Heisei-era entries consisted of seven films, which ran from 1984 until 1995. It began with The Return of Godzilla, aka Godzilla 1985, and ended with the apparent deaths of Godzilla and Godzilla Jr. in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. While the famous kaiju isn’t given much credit for being “good guy” Godzilla in these seven Heisei movies, the King of the Monsters does square off against a number of his most famous foes, including King Ghidorah, Mothra, and Mechagodzilla.

• Godzilla 1985 (1984)
• Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989)
• Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)
• Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992)
• Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993)
• Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994)
• Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995)