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.David Milner, "Ishiro Honda Interview" , Kaiju Conversations (December 1992)
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 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 and "Ghidorah". The "Ghidorah" part of the name comes from the pronunciation of the word "hydra" (Гидра, ˈɡʲidrɐ) in Russian, written as 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.Rebirth of Mothra III (1998). Directed by Okihiro Yoneda. TohoGodzilla: The Planet Eater (2018). Directed by Kōbun Shizuno and Hiroyuki Seshita. TohoGodzilla vs. Evangelion: The Real 4-D (2019). Directed by Kazuhiro Nakagawa.
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),Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991). Directed by Kazuki Ōmori. Toho project lightning strikes similar to its gravity beams,Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019). Directed by Michael Dougherty. Legendary Pictures 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 , 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.Keyes, Greg. Godzilla: King of the Monsters - The Official Movie Novelization. Titan Books. . 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.Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001). Directed by Shusuke Kaneko. Toho. In Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, after King Ghidorah got killed by Godzilla, the future humans turned it into a cyborg called Mecha-King Ghidorah, which has a Gravity Laser Cannon in the mouth of its robotic head, electrified grapples and a mechanical arm in its chest for capturing Godzilla.
In Rebirth of Mothra III, King Ghidorah can construct a corrosive dome to drain the life force of captured victims for the monster to absorb. It also has the power of hypnosis on eye contact, project lightning bolts from its wings, barrier generation using the light of energy attacks used against it and regeneration of its entire body from severed body parts. When Mothra traveled back in time to kill Ghidorah, the dragon's younger self is shown, less refined and spitting fireballs rather than gravity beams.
In Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, King Ghidorah can electrocute its opponents by biting them, he can also gain power by absorbing the energy of dead monsters and form an energy shield capable of deflecting Godzilla's atomic breath.
In Godzilla: The Planet Eater, the third part of an animated trilogy, Ghidorah is depicted as an evolved entity from a universe with different physical laws that are worshiped by the Exif, who it influenced to become nihilists upon mastering advanced Gematron mathematics. While Ghidorah consumed the Exifs' homeworld, their first offering to it, through its gravitational powers, a few priests were spared and traveled to other worlds where they established cults to sacrifice the converted planets to Ghidorah in the same way. The Exifs summon Ghidorah by having worshippers call out to it in prayer during times of great despair, allowing Ghidorah to physically manifest as a shadow to consume the worshippers through their shadows before its heads finally emerge through black holes. Its necks extend to infinite lengths, nigh-invisible to machines save for the gravitational energy it emanates, strong enough to distort Godzilla's heat ray by deflecting it or actually bending the concept of space. As long as someone native to the dimension it invades acts as its guiding anchor and witness, Ghidorah can defy that universe's physics, able to render itself intangible to enemy attacks whilst still capable of assaulting foes normally. It can even distort space-time and erode reality, able to change people's chronological perception of events and nearly succeeding in "erasing" Godzilla from existence. Though its avatar was rendered tangible to physics by the loss of connection to the priest serving as its key witness (thus allowing Godzilla to destroy its projection through reality), Ghidorah was simply banished back to its dimension, awaiting for another individual to serve as its link to open up its next chance to enter reality and feast. In order to prevent these circumstances from reoccurring, efforts had to be made to eliminate sources of anger, hate, despair, and revenge (achieved by the main character committing suicide with all of Earth's remaining machinery).
In Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Ghidorah has a divergent frontal lobe density in each of its heads, rendering each head capable of independent thoughts and divergent personality traits. Its scales are capable of running bioelectrical currents through its body, aided by traces of gold in its dermal layer, allowing it to raise unnaturally strong storms that gradually increase in power. After draining all of Boston's electric power grid by chomping down on a power substation, King Ghidorah is able to unleash chain lightning from the tips of the bones in its wings (referencing its Rebirth of Mothra III incarnation) and later shows more of its vampiric, energy-draining capabilities when it chomps down on Godzilla in a nearly successful attempt to siphon away Godzilla's remaining nuclear energy along with the power boost Mothra's ashes provided him (referencing a similar attempt made by Keizer Ghidorah in Godzilla: Final Wars). As an alpha, Ghidorah's roar is able to awaken and influence other titans around the world into rampaging in the wake of Godzilla's supposed death, having taken over as king. Halfway through the film, it displays two "unnatural" abilities that were attributed to - and served as evidence of - its alien nature. The first is the durability to withstand the Oxygen Destroyer, emerging unscathed from the same detonation which severely injured Godzilla and killed all Earth-based lifeforms within a two-mile radius. The second is the possession of highly accelerated regenerative properties, having regrown the left head minutes after Godzilla tore it off, retaining the memories and personality since Ghidorah's neurons are spread throughout its body like in an octopus. However, according to the official novelization, a store of energy must be absorbed to do so, which Ghidorah acquired from the highly-radioactive lava of Rodan's volcano. Later on, the same power substation Ghidorah consumed to boost itself also healed up the wounds on its wing membranes immediately after it fired lightning from the tips of its wings. Eventually, Godzilla succeeded in incinerating Ghidorah's wings, side heads, body, and finally, the middle head, to prevent the alien dragon from coming back. However, Ghidorah was not entirely destroyed, for the head Godzilla bit off during the fight in Mexico remained intact and was salvaged.
In Godzilla vs. Kong, it is revealed that Ghidorah's heads communicated with each other via telepathy, as its necks were so long that communication via the nervous system was impractical. Apex Cybernetics, which has acquired Ghidorah's skull and brain, is using these telepathic abilities as the basis of a psychic control system for Mechagodzilla. Once Mechagodzilla received an energy source sufficient to power it properly, Ghidorah's mind suddenly transferred itself to this new body, frying the pilot to death as it seized total control of the robot.Godzilla vs. Kong (2021). Directed by Adam Wingard. Legendary Pictures
Film history Shōwa era (1964–1975)