In 1964 Toho unveiled its most creative kaiju of the 1960s and Godzilla’s most powerful foe to date, King Ghidorah, in the film “Ghidrah: The Three-Headed Monster”. The film’s title kaiju was the most incredible and inventive kaiju yet. Before King Ghidorah, Godzilla's foes and allies were either mutated dinosaurs or giant animals. Toho took one big step further into the realm of fantasy with this kaiju. Three heads with snapping jaws and curved horns, golden diamond scales covering its entire body/necks/legs/tails, gigantic wings, two tails, and no arms. King Ghidorah was played by suit actor Shoichi Hirose in both this film and the following year’s “Godzilla vs. Monster Zero”. Mr. Hirose would wear the heavy suit and walk around in it, but the off-screen technicians would do the rest of the work, moving the wings, necks, and tails with strong piano wires. The King Ghidorah suit was refurbished for “Monster Zero” and looked absolutely stunning, but actually was only on-screen in the film for about 106 seconds, and it was a 96 minute film! The same suit was again refurbished/modified for 1968’s “Destroy All Monsters”, but not for the better. The modified Ghidorah, played by Susumu Utsumi, is not as well detailed and looks less fearsome than before, especially in the face and the wings look more simplified. This look carried over into 1972’s “Godzilla vs. Gigan” when they again refurbished the 1964 suit. King Ghidorah, this time played by Kanta Ina, really showed the wear and tear of the last eight years at this point, with a lot of stock footage from his past films being used so they didn’t have to use the suit (plus it was cheaper).
Click Below for the other versions of King Ghidorah!
