King Ghidorah's History
King Ghidorah (キングギドラ Kingu Gidora?), also dubbed Monster Zero, Titanus Ghidorah or just simply Ghidorah, is a giant extraterrestrial three-headed dragon daikaiju created by Legendary Pictures.
The main antagonist of the MonsterVerse, Ghidorah was first alluded to during the final moments the 2017 film, Kong: Skull Island, became the main antagonist of the 2019 film, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and was one of the overarching antagonists of Godzilla vs. Kong.
A rival alpha predator to Godzilla, Ghidorah was discovered by Monarch lying dormant inside an Antarctic glacier. In 2019, he was freed by Emma Russell and Alan Jonah's eco-terrorist paramilitary as part of their plan to manipulate the Titans and renew the world's ecosphere; unaware that Ghidorah was an alien who was incompatible with Earth’s established natural order. Proving impossible to control with the ORCA, Ghidorah temporarily succeeded in usurping Godzilla’s dominance, spontaneously awakening the other Titans and commanding them to begin destroying both humanity and the world's ecosystems. Ghidorah managed to cause worldwide destruction and loss of life before he was defeated and killed by the combined efforts of Godzilla, Mothra, the military, Monarch and the Russell family.
Following Ghidorah's apparent demise, the skull of his leftover severed head was converted by Apex Cybernetics into a semi-organic psionic control system for Mechagodzilla. This unwittingly enabled what remained of Ghidorah's consciousness to reincarnate into the Mecha for a brief time, before it was destroyed by Godzilla and Kong with the aid of Madison Russell, Bernie Hayes and Josh Valentine.
From the Hydra to the Rainbow Serpent, myth was the compass that led us to the resting place of the three-headed Titan. A name, unspoken through millennia of whispered nightmares. A living extinction event, named "the One who is Many". We call it Monster Zero.
At a Monarch containment facility deep in the frozen tundra of Antarctica, a three-headed winged serpent of ancient yet unknown origin lies frozen within a glacial tomb of ice. This is without question the largest superspecies ever discovered, easily dwarfing Godzilla at a height of over five-hundred feet tall.
Cranial scans reveal a divergent frontal lobe density in the brains of the three heads, denoting each head has disparate levels of cognitive functions and possibly even independent thought.
Monster Zero's dermal layer is gilded with trace amounts of aurum (See Ark Record # 73.126). Metallurgical studies theorize the scales act as a conductor capable of carrying bioelectrical currents through the creature's body. Injuries have been discovered on several locations on the beast's body, reminiscent of claw and scorch marks. Exo-Forensics are currently investigating.
Muscle tendons on the wings are so hyper-tensile that their massive aerodynamics could generate hurricane-force winds when in flight. Coupled with its body's electro-receptor molecular biology capable of conducting electrical currents, water vapor in the air would be heated at extreme levels creating its own localized storm system as it travels. Simply put, if Monster Zero were to fly again, the stratosphere would be torn open by an otherworldly tempest of thunder and lightning our sky has never seen. Cryptolinguistics has analyzed translations of every worldwide case study of Monster Zero in the Monarch database across tens of thousands of years. The ancients called it Ghidorah.
― Monarch Creature Profile
The MonsterVerse incarnation of King Ghidorah returns the character to his original roots as a villainous extraterrestrial life form. Monarch initially assumed that Ghidorah was part of Earth's natural order as one of the many Titans roaming the Earth, until it was discovered that Ghidorah survived the Oxygen Destroyer blast and regenerated his severed head in seconds. According to information pieced together from ancient mythological texts by Ilene Chen, Ghidorah "fell from the stars", which Monarch subsequently took as indicating alongside Ghidorah's non-terrestrial biology that he was an extraterrestrial lifeform who acts like an invasive species to Earth's biosphere. It is unknown where Ghidorah came from, or if there are other members of his kind in existence.
Ghidorah arrived on Earth around or during the time early humans evolved. Apparently, Ghidorah's arrival occurred some time after the original Titanus Gojira-Titanus Kong feud's formation. Numerous mythological deities such as the Hydra from Greek mythology and the Rainbow Serpent of the Aboriginal Australian religion are credited as misremembered encounters with Ghidorah by ancient civilizations, while the Taza people of Highland New Guinea remembered him as Mandandare Aqenomba. Still, ancient people left very few writings about Ghidorah, as if willfully trying to erase the malevolent Titan from memory.
If the aforementioned ancient texts are to be believed, Ghidorah was responsible for slaughtering humans and Titans alike. He established himself as a rival alpha to Godzilla, and the two battled each other several times before they vied for supremacy in ancient Antarctica, not much is known about this fight but Godzilla eventually blasted a hole through one of Ghidorah's wings, causing him to fall into icy waters to freeze solid near the tip of the continent (specifically the Scott Mountains). Ghidorah was frozen no more than a few miles away from Antarctica's vortex to the Hollow Earth, which was encased in thirty-million-year-old ice older than the ice surrounding Ghidorah, indicating that Ghidorah likely tried to enter the Hollow Earth but was stopped by Godzilla in their last battle. Monarch also theorized that Shimo may have helped Godzilla in freezing and imprisoning Ghidorah.
Kong: Skull Island
In 1973, Houston Brooks and San Lin briefed James Conrad and Mason Weaver on multiple other monsters who once ruled the world alongside Kong. This included Ghidorah, along with Godzilla, Mothra, and Rodan, who were all shown to the two via classified Monarch cave paintings.
2016
Ghidorah was discovered under the ice via the Reolus satellite, which detected an extreme electromagnetic pulse fluctuation from the frozen creature. In 2016, Vivienne Graham led an effort to build a containment and research facility (Outpost 32) around Ghidorah. Her classified field notes contained the mysterious footnote, "The devil has three heads." The creature was later dubbed 'Monster Zero' by Monarch scientist Dr. Emma Russell.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Ghidorah is first seen frozen in Antarctic ice at Outpost 32. Eco-terrorist organization leader Alan Jonah and rogue Monarch agent Emma Russell free him with explosives and awaken him with the ORCA.
Upon awakening, Ghidorah slaughters the G-Team forces on the ground before turning his attention to a grounded Osprey aircraft. Shortly after, Godzilla emerges from the ice and the two Titans engage in battle, decimating the remains of Outpost 32. Upon briefly gaining the upper-hand over Godzilla, Ghidorah targets and eats Dr. Graham alive, but is distracted from targeting the remaining humans on the ground by Monarch's aerial forces firing missiles to distract him. When Godzilla recovers amid Ghidorah's distraction, Ghidorah escapes into the sky and flees Antarctica, rapidly forming a growing cyclone around himself as he passes over Brazil.
Upon sensing Rodan's awakening at Isla de Mara, Mexico, Ghidorah's typhoon immediately changes course as he makes a beeline towards the avian Titan's location. Monarch attempts to goad the two monsters into fighting each other, with Ghidorah easily defeating Rodan by sending him falling into the ocean. Ghidorah proceeds to target and attack the USS Argo, but Godzilla emerges from the sea to fight him off. Godzilla tears off Ghidorah's left head in the ensuing struggle, but before Godzilla can finish Ghidorah off whilst the latter is prone and helpless in the ocean, they are both struck by the military's Oxygen Destroyer missile: whilst Godzilla is crippled by the blast (specifically designed to eliminate all lifeforms in the area by removing all surrounding oxygen) to the point of near-death and is forced to retreat to recuperate, Ghidorah emerges from the ocean unscathed due to his unearthly biology, and with Godzilla crippled to a point where it would likely take him years to recover, Ghidorah is now unopposed as the top Alpha Titan.
Ghidorah flies to Rodan's volcano, where he regenerates his missing head. He then calls out to the other Titans around the world, Rodan included, who all acknowledge him as their new alpha. Ghidorah immediately instructs the Titans to behave hyper-aggressively, attacking major cities and triggering rapid cataclysmic natural disasters around the world (massive wildfires, mass die-offs, volcanic eruptions polluting the atmosphere with gigatons of ash and volcanic gases); which begin rapidly wiping out the planet's ecosystems faster than the terrestrial Titans' effects can regenerate them, and threaten to spell a rapid global mass extinction[21][19]. Ghidorah himself meanwhile begins spawning offshoot massive storms from his hurricane and spreading them around the world[29], further adding to the cataclysm; and Ghidorah personally roosts in Washington, D.C. (which he completely destroys) with Rodan acting as his vanguard. Ilene Chen subsequently deduces based on Ghidorah's demonstated abnormal characteristics coupled with legends about his origins that he's an extraterrestrial, and thus has no ties to maintaining Earth's natural balance. Realizing they need Godzilla more than ever, Dr. Serizawa sacrifices himself to detonate a bomb to bring Godzilla back to full strength.
As Ghidorah is lured to Boston when Madison Russell broadcasts the ORCA's signal from Fenway Park, spontaneously disrupting Ghidorah's control of his global Titan army sans Rodan, as he seeks to destroy the signal's source as a rival to his dominance. Godzilla appears to challenge his rival once more, with Mothra and Monarch joining by his side. However, Ghidorah calls upon Rodan to distract Mothra while he takes on Godzilla himself. At first, the battle goes in Godzilla's favor, until Ghidorah manages to absorb massive amounts of electrical energy by biting down on a nearby transformer: using the excess energy, he decimates Godzilla's entire airborne military escort and forces the surviving craft to immediately retreat, whilst Godzilla at this point rapidly tires. Ghidorah proceeds to pick up Godzilla using his tails and talons, carries the injured Titan seemingly above the stratosphere, and then drops him, making him plummet tens of thousands of feet down to Earth. After slamming into the ground, mortally wounding himself, Godzilla lies defenseless. Mothra, who is grievously injured from her fight with Rodan, attempts to defend him but is killed by Ghidorah's gravity beams. As she dies, however, she releases a cloud of energy, which Godzilla absorbs, causing him to glow fiery orange.
Seemingly realizing the threat posed by this energy, Ghidorah grapples Godzilla and begins draining it out of him via bites. However, a repentant Emma Russell reactivates the ORCA in order to distract Ghidorah from completing the drainage process, and the three-headed dragon promptly chases her through the city, mortally injuring her and destroying the ORCA when his gravity beams overturn Emma's jeep.
The few moments were enough for Godzilla to recover, who then enters the scene supercharged and glowing a burning red. Ghidorah manages to shield himself against Godzilla's first thermonuclear pulse, which incinerates his wings in the process. Panicking, Ghidorah tries to stop Godzilla with his gravity beams, to no effect before Godzilla unleashes a second pulse, incinerating Ghidorah's two side heads. The remaining middle head struggles vainly, as Godzilla ferociously roars and steps on the fallen Ghidorah's chest, bursting out all of his energy from his body, as well as triggering a final thermonuclear pulse that obliterates Ghidorah's body.
After the storm ceased immediately when the pulse dissipates, Godzilla rises from the rubble with Ghidorah's middle head dangling from his mouth, still frantically struggling. Godzilla fires his atomic breath through Ghidorah's neck, incinerating it, seemingly leaving behind no remains and presumably killing him for good; thus avenging the deaths of Mothra, Graham, Emma and countless other humans.
Sometime after Godzilla's victory, it's revealed that Ghidorah's earlier-severed left head in Mexico has been recovered by fishermen from the ocean, and is now discolored and swarming with flies, seemingly dead. Alan Jonah, seeing a potential use for it upon being led to it by the fishermen, purchases it from a trader.
Kingdom Kong
Although Ghidorah is dead, his passage by Isla de Mara left a perpetual superstorm anchored above the Pacific Ocean which didn't dissipate with his other storms, described by Houston Brooks as "a gift from the Devil to remember him by." After two years raging in the same spot above the ocean, Camazotz's influence on Skull Island draws the storm away from its original position and causes it to merge with the island's perpetual storm barrier in a Fukushima effect, permanently enshrouding the island itself in an endless storm which rendered it uninhabitable over the following couple years.
Godzilla vs. Kong
At some stage after Alan Jonah acquired Ghidorah's severed left head, it was obtained by Apex Cybernetics in secret - the flesh at this point has apparently rotted away to leave only the skull. According to the novelization, a globally-wanted man who's heavily implied to be Jonah sold the skull to Walter Simmons in either 2020 or 2022 via a black market dealing.
Apex fashioned the upper-skull (minus the jaw) into a psionic uplink cockpit which could remotely control Mechagodzilla by harnessing the skull's lingering telepathy, with Ren Serizawa acting as the pilot: Bernie Hayes speculated that a separated piece of Ghidorah's DNA was hardwired inside Mechagodzilla itself, acting as a receiver where the skull cockpit acted as a transmitter. However, every time Apex activated the psionic uplink, Ghidorah's remains broadcasted a corrupted version of the three-headed monster's original bio-acoustics which Godzilla detected, provoking him to attack Apex's facilities looking for the source.
After Apex charged Mechagodzilla (being held in Apex's Hong Kong headquarters alongside the skull) with energy from the Earth's core, remnants of Ghidorah's consciousness from the skull corrupted the system and took over Mechagodzilla, enabling the Mecha to calculate and act independently of a human pilot, whilst causing it to exhibit murderous and genocidal impulses much like Ghidorah's own - at the same time, a massive power surge was drawn to the skull and electrocuted Ren in the pilot chair. While the skull itself was presumed to be destroyed during Mechagodzilla's escape from the Apex facility, Ghidorah's influence through Mechagodzilla was ended when Kong and Godzilla destroyed the Mecha.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
Despite Ghidorah's role of almost destroying Earth, some humans start to admire him. One of these humans create an online account with the username "GhidoraStan64" to harass Bernie Hayes online.
At the Monarch headquarters in Barbados, Bernie Hayes mentions Ghidorah when he proves his theory to Ilene Andrews about Godzilla's erratic behavior during the presence of a world-ending threat.
