





Ghost Godzilla[1] (ゴーストゴジラ, Gōsuto Gojira?) was the restless spirit of the first Godzilla from the unmade 1995 Godzilla film, Godzilla vs. Ghost Godzilla.





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Appearance

Concept art for the monster shows it possessing a ghastly appearance, with its eyes lacking pupils, akin to the GMK Godzilla. This concept art would be featured in the book, Shinji Nishikawa: Drawing Book of Godzilla.

Mock images of Ghost Godzilla were made and shown in the book, Heisei Godzilla Chronicle. Ghost Godzilla retained the appearance of the 1954 Godzilla incarnation. It would have been at least somewhat transparent, glowing with blue colors. Its dorsal plates were shown to have glowed a ghastly blue in concept images. These mock images show it lacking lower legs and feet in comparison to its concept art, which possessed them.

History

Ghost Godzilla was originally conceived as a pitch by Shogo Tomiyama, who envisioned the monster as a collective of bioenergy, that would unite over the course of 40 years, following its destruction at the hands of the Oxygen Destroyer.

The Oxygen Destroyer's original function was altered for this, and instead of Godzilla being disintegrated by the device, it'd instead cause a 10,000 year timeskip to occur in an instant, which is what destroyed his body and bones, but not his life force and consciousness.

Once the monster coalesced, it'd possess Godzilla Junior, with the resulting forced growth causing the monster's skin to begin tearing apart, in an attempt to replicate its once powerful form. Now in a new form, Ghost Godzilla would then target the second Godzilla of the time, and attempt to possess it to become more powerful.

Godzilla vs. Godzilla (Story Plan A)

Kazuki Omori would run with this proposal, and create a draft that deviated slightly from the original plan. In the plot to this proposed film, Ghost Godzilla was to have an origin similar to the Millennium Mechagodzilla, where the disturbance of its bones would result in its resurgence. Its attacks would be in similar areas to where it once roamed, in an effort to recover the last of its disturbed bones.

As its final bone was relocated, Godzilla would cease attacking for some time, but return in the form of Aurora Godzilla. Using this form, Little Godzilla would be possessed, and as the original Godzilla now possessed a body, it would begin another reign of destruction. This would only be stopped once the second Godzilla defeated Little Godzilla, to which the last bone of Godzilla would be destroyed, shattering to dust. The remnants of Ghost Godzilla's energy would mix with this dust and the end result would be Crystal Godzilla.

The concept of Ghost Godzilla, despite receiving multiple drafts and submissions would ultimately go unused. This was scrapped as Godzilla's previous two enemies, Mechagodzilla and SpaceGodzilla, resembled him aesthetically. Director Takao Okawara said that "having three movies in a row where Godzilla fights a monster that resembles him is just too much," so the project was dropped in favor of Godzilla vs. Destoroyah.[1]

Abilities

Atomic breath

Ghost Godzilla possessed an atomic ray, with mock images of him showing its charge up. While unfinished, Ghost Godzilla was to become fully transparent, barring his glowing dorsal plates once he began to charge his atomic powers.

Possession

Ghost Godzilla was able to possess and mutate the body of its host, as seen with its possession of Little Godzilla. Ghost Godzilla possessed Kiryu after hearing the roar of Godzilla.

Trivia

Funko sold an exclusive figure called "Ghost Glow Godzilla" as part of their Pop! line during New York Comic-Con 2015. Given the figure's name and appearance, it is likely meant to be Ghost Godzilla. FunKo later released a variant of their Godzilla Hikari figure, explicitly identified as "Ghost Godzilla" on its package.

NECA considered releasing a figure of Ghost Godzilla, but Toho denied the idea.

List of appearances

Films

Books

References