Godzilla, the gargantuan dinosaur-like creature that has starred in roughly 30 movies to date, has to be one of the most famous characters to ever come out of Japan. Since its first appearance on the screen in 1954, Godzilla has captured the fascination of fans around the world and has become one of the most recognizable symbols of Japan. Yes, there just seems to be something about Godzilla that we can’t get enough of, and even if you’re not a hard-core kaiju fan, we’re guessing that many of you saw the Hollywood movie that was released last year.

Now, the monster action in that movie was certainly spectacular to look at, but don’t you think it would be interesting to see some ideas for monsters that didn’t appear in the film? Well, that’s exactly what we’re sharing with you here today!

The beautiful illustrations shown here are the work of conceptual artist Josh Nizzi, who has done work on movies such as Transformers: Age of Extinction and The Avengers. Apparently, Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. had different artists create images of prospective monsters in the early stages of making their Godzilla 2014 film. If you’ve seen the movie, you’ll be familiar with the MUTO monsters they eventually decided on, but we think these creations by Nizzi look quite awesome too!

There are three Godzilla conceptual images that Nizzi has uploaded onto his website. One is of a sleek, dragon-like winged monster called the “Pterodactyl“.

The second features a multi-legged and heavily spiked monster called the “Rokmutul“, which looks like it may have been based on the dinosaur ankylosaurus.

The third Godzilla image on Nizzi’s site shows Godzilla fighting Rokmutul, naturally causing huge destruction to the surroundings.

The monsters look like they can kick some serious ass, don’t they? While the MUTOs that were used in the actual movie certainly looked fierce and cool, we think these images by Nizzi are definitely a delight to look at and we’d love to see monsters like these come to life on the screen!

And as all of you kaiju fans out there may already know, we have plenty of Godzilla action to look forward to in the next few years. TOHO, the original creators of the Godzilla movie series, will be releasing a new Godzilla movie next year, their first since Godzilla: Final Wars in 2004, and which will be scripted by Neon Genesis Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno. Plus, the sequel to Hollywood’s Godzilla 2014 is scheduled to come out in 2018, this time with appearances by familiar monsters Mothra, Rodan and King Ghidorah. Now, that should be quite the kaiju fest!

We’ll certainly be watching out for more information on the new Godzilla movies, and if you want to see more amazing work by Josh Nizzi, you can visit his website here. Here’s a huge thanks to Nizzi for sharing his awesome art!

Source: Josh Nizzi website, Godzilla-Movies.com

Images: Josh Nizzi website