Summary

• Godzilla has fought numerous foes over the years, including a giant octopus, but the franchise became more about watching giant monsters punch each other.
• There have been many canceled Godzilla movies and proposed crossovers with other Toho beasts or characters from other studios, such as Godzilla vs. Cthulhu and a Pacific Rim/Godzilla crossover.
• Some of the most exciting Godzilla battles that never came to include Ghost Godzilla, Chamelegon, Gaira the Gargantua, and Mechani-Kong fighting Godzilla.

Godzilla has fought numerous foes over the years, and even more have been planned without ever coming to fruition. The beloved kaiju first appeared in 1954's Godzilla, a thoughtful and powerful monster-movie rumination on the horrors of the nuclear bomb. While the film did feature a scene where Godzilla fights a giant octopus, it was much more focused on the love triangle between its three central human characters and the ethics of developing super-weapons. Starting immediately with the first sequel, Godzilla Raids Again, Godzilla movies started to live up to their franchise's reputation, becoming much more about watching giant monsters punch each other.

Including the Godzilla Minus One, there have been 33 Toho Godzilla movies to date, spanning eight decades. Each movie goes through a great deal of development, often starting with the core concept of who he'll be fighting. As such, Godzilla is often planned to battle monsters that are either redesigned to the point of being unrecognizable or completely swapped out for others later on during production. Additionally, there have been many canceled Godzilla movies, proposed crossover movies with other Toho beasts or even characters from other studios. Here are some of the most exciting Godzilla battles that have never come to .

19 Ghost Godzilla

A proposal for the seventh and final Heisei-era Godzilla movie was for the restless spirit of the original Godzilla (seen in the 1954 movie of the same name) to return, having been killed by the oxygen destroyer at the end of that film. It was intended as a means of book-ending the franchise. One draft saw Ghost Godzilla possessing the body of LittleGodzilla, causing him to grow into something more closely resembling his original form, albeit with tears in his skin caused by the growth spurt. The idea was scrapped because Godzilla's last two movie villains, MechaGodzilla and SpaceGodzilla, had also been alternate forms of Godzilla.

18 Cthulhu

Unless you count Arkham Asylum, H.P. Lovecraft's most famous creation is the titular focus of his short story "The Call of Cthulhu." Despite great cultural significance, the eldritch god and otherworld horror has been surprisingly absent from the world of film and television, with his most significant appearance to date likely being his inclusion as the antagonist of a 2010 three-part episode of South Park. Things could have been very different, however. After Toho requested staff proposals, a pitch for Godzilla vs. Cthulhu, crossing over the Toho Monsterverse with Lovecraft's extensive Cthulhu Mythos was submitted. Despite being one of, assistant producer, Shinichiro Arimasa's favorite submissions, the project never moved forward.

17 Chamelegon

Chamelegon was an alien mecha that was intended to serve as the villain in the unmade movie S.O.S. Tokyo! Godzilla's Suicide Strategy. Taking his name from the word "chameleon," the character was going to be invisible in what has been speculated to be an attempt to save money in the film's budget. Unlike human beings, however, Godzilla was going to be able to see the new enemy, allowing them to do battle. Chamelegon was capable of flight and emitting ultrasound, which it would have used to lure Godzilla into a trap.

16 Gaira the Gargantua

Gaira is the focus of 1966 kaiju movie, The War of the Gargantuas. The co-production with United Productions of America is a semi-sequel to Frankenstein Conquers the World, establishing gargantuas, kaiju beings derived from the heart of Frankenstein's monster. Gaira made multiple stock footage appearances in Godzilla movies, with clips appearing in Godzilla vs. Gigan, Godzilla vs. Megalon, Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, and Godzilla: Final Wars, which established his moves as part of the Godzilla canon. At some point, a Godzilla vs. Gaira movie was considered by Toho and UPA. It's speculated to be U.S.-Japan Collaboration: Godzilla, a production that was officially announced for a 1978 release, but never materialized.

15 Jaegers

Producers from Warner Bros. and even Guillermo Del Toro have spoken about their desire to see a Pacific Rim / Godzilla crossover movie. In fact, if it had been made, the plan was for the ending of Pacific Rim 3 to connect to the Godzilla vs Kong universe, teasing a Monsterverse crossover in the next Pacific Rim installment. It makes sense given that Pacific Rim was, in part, intended as Del Toro's love-letter to Godzilla, a character and franchise he's a gigantic fan of. After Pacific Rim: Uprising underperformed, a third Pacific Rim now seems unlikely for the foreseeable future.

14 Gamera

At one point, a Godzilla & Gamera crossover was planned. Unlike most Godzilla crossovers, Gamera was created by a rival studio to Toho, Daiei Film. In fact, Gamera was specifically created with the intent of capitalizing on the success of Godzilla. First appearing in Gamera, the Giant Monster in 1965, there have been 12 Gamera movies to date. A proposed 2002 movie would have finally brought the two rival characters together, but Toho ultimately declined to move forward with the production after Gamera's rights holders insisted that he win the battle with Godzilla.

13 Gryphon

Before Godzilla was remade in 1998, a separate American remake had already been attempted in 1994. The canceled Godzilla movie's villain would have been an alien bioweapon designed to destroy all life on the planet, named Gryphon. Arriving inside a meteorite, the creature would collect generic material from animals all over the globe in order to construct a body for itself that it would then use to wreak havoc. This would have awakened a new form of Godzilla, revealed to be a bioweapon creation of an ancient civilization used to defend Earth. Despite being canceled, the movie got quite far into pre-production, even releasing a teaser trailer in Japan:

12 The Biomonster

Biomonster was one of several monster concepts proposed for the seventh Heisei-era Godzilla movie in 1995. The giant, bioengineered monster would have had an unusually humanoid appearance for a Godzilla creature, featuring cybernetic touches and skin enhanced by "G-cells," making it every bit as tough as Godzilla himself. Toho ultimately opted to move forward with Godzilla vs. Destroyah instead. Not much is known about Biomonster, but concept art from monster designer Kaoru Kamikiku has been released, showing what the beast might have looked like had Godzilla vs. Biomonster ever been made.

11 King Goku

Not much is known about a planned King Goku movie other than the broad concept that King Goku would have been based on Sun Wukong, The Monkey King best known as one of the principal characters in the classic Chinese novel, Journey to the West. King Goku would have been an extremely unusual Godzilla movie monster in that he isn't kaiju-sized. Roughly the same size as a human, Goku would likely have relied upon superpowers like flight in order to do combat with Godzilla. Godzilla vs. King Goku was eventually reworked into Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla.

10 Bagan

Bagan is one of the more interesting of Toho's canceled Godzilla villains. He was envisioned as a shapeshifter that could switch between three forms: ape, fish, and dragon, with a fourth, amalgamated form added in subsequent proposals. He was conceived for an unmade 1980 movie titled Resurrection of Godzilla, and was later proposed as the villain in a 1990 Mothra movie, which would have been titled Mothra vs. Bagan. Several other Godzilla movies over the years all started as attempts to revive the character concept, but none of them have ever come to fruition. Despite this, he finally debuted in the 1993 video game Super Godzilla.