Gareth Edwards, whose Godzilla reboot for Legendary Pictures is set for release in May, has confirmed that the titular nuclear-powered beastie will fight other monsters in the movie.

Edwards confirmed what many had suspected in an interview with Empire Magazine, and went into details about how the monsters came about and what inspired them.

The creations, called Mutos in the script, are new creations not based on existing Kaiju (the Japanese term for super-sized monsters like Godzilla).

"Yeah we start from scratch," says the director. "Trying to design a new creature that feels like something you've not seen yet looks good is a really hard task. We went for a combo of all our favourite monsters from every movie.

"Part-shark, part-Alien Queen, part-Starship Troopers, part-gorilla... They're kind of an amalgam."

It was also revealed to Empire that the filmmakers consulted Andy Serkis and his motion-capture facility The Imaginarium to help give Godzilla a certain personality and reliability.

In the classic Japanese films Godzilla has always been feared due to his size, but has also been a hero fighting off similarly-sized and perhaps even more dangerous monsters.

The in-depth preview also reveals that this Godzilla, as evidenced in the trailers, will be the largest ever put on film at an incredible 350 feet tall – twice the size of the Godzilla that stalked New York in Roland Emmerich's infamous Hollywood take on the legend in 1998.

Starring Bryan Cranston, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen and one almighty lizard, Godzilla is set for release on 16 May.