The New Godzilla Movies Skipped This Perfect Matchup Twice, But The Monsterverse Can Fix That

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Given that the franchise has now lasted 70 years, it's no surprise to learn that for every monster who has fought against Godzilla, there remain just as many who never really got the chance. One of the most mysterious is Bagan, who came close to reaching the big screen not once but twice during the early 1990s. Although this idea soon fell victim to practical concerns, the monster later appeared in the Super Godzilla video game, where his own level of power forces Godzilla to evolve to match him. Should they desire to do so, the American series has the chance to finally bring the scrapped kaiju to life on the big screen and already have the perfect blueprint.

Bagan Has a Long and Troubled Development History

Gidzilla and Mothra fighting in Godzilla vs. Mothra

In the early 1990s, the Godzilla series was in an odd place. After remaining in hibernation for a decade, the franchise was successfully revived for its fortieth anniversary in 1984, beginning a new era of films for the latest generation. Such success gave way to a renewed sense of creativity, with new opponents like Biollante facing off against the King of the Monsters, but the desire to return to classic kaiju like King Ghidorah and Mothra remained tempting. In 1990, series producer Kazuki Omori had the idea of entertaining both concepts by having Mothra face Bagan in a new film of her own. During an interview at the time, special effects supervisor Koichi Kawakita remarked that Toho decided against making the film because they believed Mothra was just not popular enough to justify it. When Godzilla and Mothra were finally reunited a couple of years later, Omori was hired as a screenwriter and simply converted his draft around the new storyline.

Ironically, the popularity of Mothra later soared following her rematch with the king, ensuring she would finally get her own trilogy after the Heisei Godzilla series ended. However, Bagan was left nowhere to be seen and had been abandoned for the sake of practicality. While Tomoyuki Tanaka, the creator of Godzilla himself, always intended for him to face off against Bagan, using more famous and popular monsters was seen as the safer option in an era where they still had to fit the actors into rubber suits. When asked about the decision years later, series producer and future president of Toho Shogo Tomiyama bluntly explained the logic behind this creative choice:

“After our experience with Biollante, we learned that developing a design for a new character is not easy. It requires a lot of time and effort. We couldn't really picture Bagan as a new Kaiju, and we didn't think it would be worth developing the design and everything due to the amount of time and effort needed. So we decided to stick to the monsters that were already known and loved by the public.”

Although he never appeared on the big screen, Bagan later became the final opponent of the Super Godzilla video game in 1993, the same year that Godzilla vs. Mothra: The Battle of Earth was released. To this day, this remains the only appearance of Bagan in any medium.

Bagan Has Already Proven Himself A Match for Godzilla

Although Bagan's ability has yet to be tested on the big screen, we already have the perfect demonstration of what he can bring to the table because of his video game debut. In Super Godzilla, the King of the Monsters faces Bagan, but doing so essentially guarantees defeat. Only by evolving into a much more powerful form can Godzilla stand a chance and secure victory, which says a lot when one considers just how powerful many of his past incarnations have been. While the game is not widely known today, Kawakita remarked that it had one big influence by inspiring the design of Spacegodzilla one year later.

In the Monsterverse, we have already seen Godzilla evolve to face more powerful foes. In Godzilla: King of the Monsters, his burning form returns for the first time in decades, while his abilities get another boost in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire that might even become permanent. With such a precedent, it seems easy to imagine the franchise continuing this trend, and it feels like the perfect way to introduce Bagan as a new deadly opponent to Godzilla, whether for the next solo film or another crossover with King Kong. There are plenty of great kaiju that the Monsterverse has yet to utilize, but this also means scrapped monsters could still see the light of day, which could be the best chance to finally see Bagan on the big screen.