All Godzilla Movie Origins, Explained

Highlights

Godzilla's origin story has shifted throughout the years, from a metaphor for atomic bombs to a reptile mutated by nuclear tests. Its origin is a difficult subject to pin down.
The American adaptation of Godzilla introduced a new twist to the origin story, depicting Godzilla as an iguana mutated by nuclear testing. This departure focused more on factual accuracy.
The anime trilogy introduced a completely new origin story, with Godzilla evolving from plant life and becoming the dominant force on Earth, making it uninhabitable for humans.

For a creature with so many starring roles in films over the past seventy years, Godzilla is a surprisingly mysterious creature. This sometimes heroic, sometimes destructive beast has appeared in a huge number of productions, With Godzilla even crossing over into all forms of pop culture and even facing off against characters like the Justice League.

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However, across the various eras of Godzilla movies, and the many reboots which have occurred both in America and Japan, the character has changed a great deal, sometimes having unbelievable levels of strength. Its origin is something that has constantly shifted, proving to be a difficult subject to pin down to one particular event or issue.

9 First Showa Era Godzilla

The Original Atomic Metaphor

Appeared In:Godzilla (1954)

The first-ever Godzilla was created for the 1954 Japanese film that has become a classic of the genre, a pioneer of monster movies that showcased how destructive creatures can make fascinating metaphors for real-world events. Godzilla was originally created as a metaphor for the atomic bombs that America dropped on Japan, a warning about the destructive capabilities of nuclear power.

This Godzilla was a creature who was turned into a monster by American atomic tests in the Pacific. The radiation associated with almost every version of Godzilla and the powerful atomic blasts it can unleash were all original parts of the creature’s first incarnation and origin story. This version of Godzilla was killed by the oxygen destroyer at the conclusion of the first film.

8 Second Showa Era Godzilla

The Comical Giant Hero

Appeared From:Godzilla Raids Again (1955) – Terror Of Mechagodzilla (1975)

The rest of the Showa Era of Godzilla movies in Japan was much more light-hearted, featuring the creature as a heroic character that took on and defeated a variety of other giant creatures in a huge number of features. For twenty years, this was the version of Godzilla that appeared on screens, and his origin story was a fairly simple one.

This Godzilla was simply referred to as “another creature similar to” the Godzilla from 1954. It was supposed that the same atomic testing hit both of them, rendering the creatures essentially brothers. But, since the scientist who created the oxygen destroyer died killing the first Godzilla, there was never a way to stop this one, not that he ever seemed to focus on hurting humanity.

7 Heisei Era Godzilla

The Lagos Island Dinosaur

Appeared From: The Return Of Godzilla (1984) – Godzilla vs Destoroyah (1995)

The second major era of Godzilla movies ran mostly through the early 90s, picking up where the original 1954 film left off, making it a great new jumping-on point. Along the way, it decided to slightly update the origin of the creature. This didn’t happen right away, but in Godzilla vs King Ghidorah, in 1991, when an extra story was found regarding the origin of the creature hit by the atomic bomb tests.

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In this version, Godzilla wasn’t just a reptile living on one of the Pacific islands before the atomic bomb testing. He was an actual dinosaur, found living on Lagos Island, who helped a group of Japanese soldiers being attacked by Americans. The Japanese found a record of this and later believed this was the same dinosaur that mutated into Godzilla.

6 First American Godzilla/Zilla

The Iguana Incident

Appeared In:Godzilla (1998)

In a slight departure from the original origin story, the first American adaptation of the Godzilla story decided to slightly change the species that the creature began as. Instead of a dinosaur or simple lizard, this version of Godzilla was mutated by nuclear testing, done by the Americans around French Polynesia, from an iguana.

This unusual step allowed the American version of the film to focus more on fact, as this Godzilla creature, later retconned by Toho and renamed as Zilla, was able to act more like an iguana actually does. Though it has since been viewed as a lesser Godzilla, this initial foray into American cinema would set the stage for the later MonsterVerse.

5 Giant Monsters All-Out Attack Godzilla

The Strangest Origin Yet

Appeared In:Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)

The Millennium Era was a curious one, as it was in an anthology format, with each film being totally separate. The generally accepted origin of the Godzilla creatures appearing in these films was similar to that of the second Showa Era Godzilla, since the 1954 film was still part of the canon of most of these films.

However, in Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, there was a major difference. This film presented one of the most ruthless versions of Godzilla ever seen on the big screen, and it included the idea that Godzilla, unlike any other film starring the monster, was possessed by the souls that died in the Pacific during the Second World War. This helped explain the complete savagery of Godzilla in this film, compared with his relative “good-guy” stance through most of the rest of the Millennium Era.

4 Second American Godzilla

Stuck To The Basics

Appeared From:Godzilla (2014) – Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)

When the Americans decided to have another go at making a big-budget Godzilla film of their own, there were certain limitations placed on them by Toho. They were told that they had to keep pieces of the origin story as it was, which meant having Godzilla created via a nuclear accident, which had to take place in Japan.

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For this reason, there is a flashback sequence during the opening credits hinting towards parts of this, and the early portion of the film is set in Japan. However, Legendary continued expanding Godzilla’s origin, adding the Hollow Earth as a means of travel and living space for him and other creatures, explaining how many appear out of nowhere, and how Godzilla is seen as a heroic protector who triumphs over evil monsters.

3 Shin Godzilla

Reinvented For A New Time

Appeared In:Shin Godzilla (2016)

Toho wanted to do something different to combat the success of America’s new version of Godzilla, so they took a relatively drastic approach to their next film. Reinventing Godzilla, they kept elements of his origin, namely that he was a sea creature exposed to atomic waste in the 1950s, and added layers as the audience watched Godzilla evolve throughout this adventure.

This destructive force was meant to mirror the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, as the first Godzilla was supposed to represent the atomic bombs dropped on Japan. Managing to also be a satire of Japanese politics, this bold film was a complete shift in Godzilla culture.

2 The Anime Trilogy Godzilla

Evolved From Plant Life

Appeared From:Godzilla: Planet Of The Monsters (2017) – Godzilla: The Planet Eater (2018)

The complete deviation in the anime trilogy of movies built around Godzilla was shocking but made for some fascinating ideas that were completely new to the franchise. This Godzilla, the largest seen on-screen, appeared at the end of the 20th Century and took over the Earth, making it uninhabitable for humans who took to space, and defeating most other Kaiju creatures on the planet.

His origin is complicated, but the idea is that Godzilla evolved from plant life, proving to be the final word on Earth’s natural selection. This humongous creature devastated all attempts to stop him, even proving too much for an interdimensional version of Ghidorah.

1 Godzilla Minus One

An Island Folklore Creature

Appeared In:Godzilla Minus One (2023)

The most recent version of Godzilla to appear on-screen, in Toho’s latest rebooting of the franchise, has many similarities with what can be considered the “typical” Godzilla origin. Islanders who tell stories of a dinosaur-like creature that was seen before becoming irradiated in a 1946 atomic test don't make for a very exact origin.

That is the theme. Despite a lot of talking about Godzilla in this film and how to destroy the creature, the origin of the large creature before he was irradiated is unknown. He was simply known by the locals of Odo Island as a monster whose arrival was heralded by deep sea fish rising to the surface of the ocean, dead. This new and beloved take on the creature added some realistic ideas while keeping to the bread and butter of the normal Godzilla origin story, and turning him back into a villain that had to be defeated somehow in a grand finale.