Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire sees the two titular kaiju go up against the Skar King, a dangerous villain with his sights set on the human world. But, there are some other monsters in the mix – and a back-up plan if one in particular couldn't return. Beware, the following will contain major spoilers for the movie, so turn away now if you're not up to date!
Towards the end of the film, Mothra is awoken – after apparently dying in Godzilla: King of the Monsters – and she helps Godzilla and Kong make friends (or, frenemies) and unite to take down the Skar King. But, if Mothra wasn't available for use, director Adam Wingard had another idea.
"There was briefly another character called Phosphera that we had in place of Mothra. But Mothra was always what the character was written around," Wingard revealed to TheWrap. "And there’s this false narrative online that this other character tested badly, and then we were like, 'Let's get Mothra.' The plan was always Mothra. But we weren't sure if we were going to be able to get Mothra. And once we tested the movie, we had the previous version of that, and by then, things had cleared up and we were able to do Mothra."
Ad Wingard explained, it worked out for the best. "It would have been really dumb to not do Mothra because if you look at this other creature, it did and said everything the way Mothra does things, but it would have been another creature," he added. "It would have been very disappointing if, ultimately, we wouldn't have been able to land that. I don't like that some people think that it wasn't the plan all along. If you look at the very first draft of the script, it always says Mothra."
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is in theaters now. For much more on the movie, check out our deep dives on:
