Ever since Godzilla Minus Zero was officially confirmed to the world, fan speculation has been rampant about what other kaiju might potentially appear in the film. Though 2023’s Godzilla Minus One was pretty self-contained in featuring only the titular king of the monsters, fan expectations for another monster that he might fight in the sequel were largely dependent on the history of Godzilla movies as a whole. Previously, there was some belief that perhaps Anguirus would appear, showing up as something of a wink to being the first kaiju Godzilla fought in his second movie. Now, though, we know exactly which monster Godzilla will face, and it’s his deadliest foe ever.
The new trailer for Godzilla Minus Zero arrived this morning, showing off a slew of new footage from the film and including a jaw-dropping reveal about the IMAX scope that it will have on display. More importantly, though, the Godzilla Minus Zero trailer fully confirmed that in the new movie, Godzilla will be facing off against a new version of King Ghidorah. Though the kaiju doesn’t appear in the footage, his presence is clearly teased in more ways than one and is made fully obvious by one specific sound cue.
Throughout the trailer for Godzilla Minus Zero, there are a few things that should stick out to any Godzilla fan who has seen plenty of movies. One of these is the constant appearance of yellow bolts of lightning that either fly through the sky or strike the ground and explode. This is a hallmark of King Ghidorah’s powers in the classic Toho movies, as the beams fly out of his three dragon heads.
The most important, though, comes at the 1:12 mark, when the classic Ghidorah roar can be heard, though it does appear to have a slight augmentation to it for the new film. It’s also no coincidence that the use of King Ghidorah’s sounds from the original Toho library arrives just before the shot of Godzilla himself falling from the sky is revealed. All that together makes it clear that these two are going to be duking it out in the film, and that Ghidorah will pick up and drop Godzilla at least one time.
Confirmation that King Ghidorah will appear in the movie also puts some new context onto the title of the film itself. Godzilla Minus Zero already made sense somewhat as a naming convention given the previous movie, but it’s worth noting that one of Ghidorah’s aliases in the classic Toho films is “Monster Zero.” How that will tie into the larger plot of the movie remains to be seen, but it certainly makes the title even more interesting.
Though King Ghidorah’s last big-screen appearance was in the 2019 Legendary movie Godzilla: King of the Monsters, his last time in a live-action feature film from Toho goes back even further. A version of Ghidorah was used in the anime movies produced by Toho, with another, dubbed “Keizer Ghidorah,” previously appearing in 2004’s Godzilla: Final Wars. With the monster’s return for Godzilla Minus Zero, that marks the end of a more than two-decade gap since his last live-action movie with Toho.
Toho and GKIDS will debut Godzilla Minus Zero first in Japan on November 3rd, but the wait for a domestic release won’t be long as theaters in the United States and Canada can see the film on November 6th.
