Between Godzilla and King Kong’s 1962 and 2021 meetings, there was a series of three known attempts to bring the two back together again. Created in 1939 and 1954 respectively, King Kong and Godzilla have shared the big screen a total of three times over a 71-year period of shared cinematic history. After RKO and Toho arranged Godzilla and King Kong’s famous clash in 1962’s King Kong vs. Godzilla, decades pᴀssed before a rematch could be worked out.
Legendary’s Godzilla vs. Kong notably renewed their rivalry by pitting the Monsterverse incarnations of the characters against each other. Rather than go back to their separate ways like their Toho counterparts all those years ago, Godzilla and Kong reunited again just three years later in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’s ending. What’s more, a fourth partnership is expected in the unтιтled Godzilla x Kong sequel. But had previous efforts for Godzilla-Kong crossovers gone differently, their next team-up could have been their seventh meeting.
Continuation: King Kong vs. Godzilla
The Movie Would Have Been A Direct Sequel To Their First Crossover
Similar to how Legendary moved on from Godzilla vs. Kong and straight to Godzilla x Kong, Toho once had a mind to do this as well. On account of the first crossover’s success, Toho had discussions about an immediate follow-up wherein the two would have a rematch. тιтled Continuation: Godzilla vs. Kong, the treatment would have been a direct sequel that picked up after the events of Godzilla’s apparent defeat. Godzilla’s body would have washed up on the shore, with the human characters wrongly ᴀssuming he’s ᴅᴇᴀᴅ for a large portion of the film.
It also would have reversed the human characters’ plan in King Kong vs. Godzilla by having them work toward reviving Godzilla with electricity to fight King Kong.
The lead-up to Godzilla’s awakening and inevitable rematch with King Kong would have consisted of a fight between Kong and a giant scorpion and the introduction of a monster amusement park. It also would have reversed the human characters’ plan in King Kong vs. Godzilla by having them work toward reviving Godzilla with electricity to fight King Kong. At the end of the movie, the fight would have concluded with the two being trapped in a volcano.
Of course, the movie didn’t move forward, with Toho opting to make Mothra vs. Godzilla next instead. No official reasoning for the sequel not coming to fruition has been offered, but as noted by John LeMay’s The Big Book of Giant Japanese Monster Movies: The Lost Films, the story was extremely similar to the first movie, so much that Toho may not have considered it worthwhile.
Destroy All Monsters (1967 Version)
There Were Multiple Drafts Of The Destroy All Monsters Script, Some With Different Kaiju
In 1968, Toho released Destroy All Monsters, an Avengers-esque crossover where Godzilla and a slew of kaiju from other Toho monster movies joined him in a fight against King Ghidorah. Monsters with pre-existing connections to Godzilla – such as Angurius, Rodan, and Mothra – were on hand, including monsters from standalone films, including Baragon, Varan, and Manda. But though it had an impressive lineup, it was actually supposed to be much bigger. An earlier draft of the script would have seen King Kong take part in the fighting as well, presumably as an ally against Ghidorah.
While Destroy All Monsters did not bring Kong back after King Kong Escapes, it did feature Gorosaurus, one of his two opponents in the movie.
Because Toho viewed Destroy All Monsters as an “all-hands-on-deck” type of story, it wanted all of its monsters involved, and that approach included, in addition to the monsters seen in the final version, King Kong and both Sanda and Gaira from War of the Gargantuas. King Kong’s appearance would have been fresh off his role in 1967’s King Kong Escapes. However, it would seem that Destroy All Monsters took a bit too long to make. The five-year licensing agreement that allowed Toho to use Kong eventually ran its course, resulting in King Kong Escapes being his last Toho film.
King Kong vs. Godzilla (1991 Version)
After Biollante, Godzilla Almost Fought King Kong Instead Of King Ghidorah
Toho’s interest in Godzilla-King Kong crossovers cooled off after it lost the rights, but heated up again in the early 1990s when Godzilla’s Heisei series was ongoing. After Godzilla vs. Biollante performed poorly at the box office, Toho pivoted back to a more recognizable franchise name for his next opponent and made Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah. Prior to settling on that matchup, Toho entertained a pitch from Shinji Nichikawa, who proposed a remake of King Kong vs. Godzilla. It makes sense that Toho was interested in the idea, considering how much attention the film would have received.
Based on what’s been established about the plot for the remake, King Kong would have lost their first fight before getting transformed into a cyborg for the final battle. If this plot sounds familiar, it’s because this is the direction that Toho ultimately went with for Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah. So while Toho may not have gone ahead with this plan, it looks like this aspect of the story was recycled into its Godzilla next project via Mecha-King Ghidorah. As for why it didn’t happen, LeMay’s book suggests that the rights to King Kong may have been deemed too expensive for Toho to purchase at the time.
