King Ghidorah

**King Ghidorah** (キングギドラ, *Kingu Gidora*) is a fictional monster, or kaiju, which first appeared in Ishirō Honda's 1964 film Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster. Although the name of the character is officially trademarked by Toho as "King Ghidorah", the character was originally referred to as Ghidorah or 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 wings in the shape of fans to fly and two tails), its origin story has varied from being an extraterrestrial planet-killing 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 an 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.

King Ghidorah appears as the primary antagonist in the 2019 film Godzilla: King of the Monsters and mentioned in the 2021 film Godzilla vs. Kong. He was revealed to be the final villain that controlled Mechagodzilla.

## Appearances

### 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)
* Rebirth of Mothra III (1998)
* Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)
* Godzilla: The Planet Eater (2018)
* Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
* Godzilla vs. Kong (2021, stock footage cameo, skull)

### Television

* Zone Fighter (1973)
* Godzilla Island (1997-1998)

### 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)
* Unnamed MonsterVerse Mobile Game (2019)
* Monster Hunter World: Iceborne (mentioned as a reference)

### 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)

### Others

* 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.