One of the most exciting leaks from the upcoming Godzilla vs. Kong is the presence of Mechagodzilla. Since his initial appearance in 1974, Mechagodzilla has become one of the most popular and iconic Godzilla enemies. If Mechagodzilla does in fact appear in Godzilla vs Kong, then he will have appeared in all the series of Godzilla movies, in a total of 8 movies.
Based on the information we’ve seen, Mechagodzilla will likely be a weapon that Monarch uses, possibly to fight Godzilla and the other Titans. However, there are good odds that this strategy will backfire. Here’s ten ways it could happen.
It Might Not Work
A huge machine like Mechagodzilla is very complicated, and requires a massive technological leap from our current achievements. Monarch shows some amazingly advanced weapons and vehicles in Godzilla: King of the Monsters.
However, even that is nothing compared to the level of technology necessary to make a functioning giant robot monster. So it wouldn’t be a surprise if the device didn’t actually work. It might also only work in a limited fashion, with minor mechanical problems that help add comedic relief or more major failures that ramp up tension at select moments.
It Might Explode Or Melt Down
One potential malfunction that could be even more disastrous would be an explosion. Mechagodzilla must use an incredible amount of power. To generate the necessary power would likely require multiple nuclear reactors of the conventional fission type.
Or perhaps it will use fusion power, which could yield the necessary energy or some other technology that is not yet known. Any of these power sources might be liable to explode, causing considerable damage in the process. Even if Mechagodzilla had already won the battle, this turn of events would be problematic for Monarch.
It Might Not Be Strong Enough
Assuming that Mechagodzilla works, will it be strong enough to face the King of the Monsters? This is a tall order. Godzilla has already shown himself to be impervious to most conventional weaponry. Plus, over the course of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, the monster’s power grew exponentially.
First, when Godzilla was revived in the underwater city, he came back more powerful, then, after the death of Mothra, Godzilla became even stronger. Being able to initiate and survive the burning stage makes Godzilla a far deadlier opponent than he had been after the 2014 movie.
Note that this might be a temporary setback. It is not uncommon for Mechagodzilla to take some damage during an initial encounter with Godzilla, then get repaired and upgraded to be even stronger for a later fight. Of course, Godzilla can also get stronger, too, which is what happened in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1993).
It Could Cause The Monsters To Unite
On the other hand, Mechagodzilla might be strong enough to fight Godzilla. However, that could potentially bring all the other monsters together as they rally behind their king. Then the Titans might team up and overwhelm Mechagodzilla.
Or perhaps it will be just Godzilla and Kong who drop their conflict to join forces against the mechanical monster. In any of these situations, it wouldn’t look good for Mechagodzilla. Or the people who built it. On the other hand, perhaps the entire goal is to unite the monsters, bowing to the mechanical King of the Monsters, making them servants of humanity.
There Might Be Too Much Collateral Damage
Over the short series of Monsterverse movies, we’ve seen Monarch grow. In Kong: Skull Island, the program was essentially just one man on a shoestring budget (at risk of getting cut). By the time we get to King of the Monsters, they are apparently very well-financed and have considerable support. However, they are still at the mercy of politicians, who expressed considerable exasperation at points during King of the Monsters.
It could be that a destructive fight between Godzilla and Mechagodzilla could lead to the program finally getting cut or perhaps subsumed under an unfriendly controlling authority, such as the military, which obviously has its own ideas for dealing with Titans.
The Technology Could Be Misused
The problem might not be Mechagodzilla itself, but the fact that the technology opens a Pandora’s box, of sorts. The biggest potential problem: Mecha-Ghidorah.
In the credits scene from King of the Monsters, we see Alan Jonah buying the torn-off and decaying head of Ghidorah. Knowing that Mechagodzilla is possible and potentially even having some moles inside the program, Jonah might reverse-engineer the concept to develop his own mechanical Titan. Even if Godzilla could ultimately defeat this monster, it could cause considerable damage before it was itself destroyed.
It Could Be Hacked
Speaking of misuse of technology, a hacker could potentially gain control of the device, turning it against Monarch. In this scenario, the device might do devastating damage, and Monarch would find itself once again allying with Godzilla to try to defeat the device. The hackers could be some rival faction, like Jonah’s crew, or perhaps it might be a splinter group within Monarch itself.
For an even more strange turn, the hackers could be aliens, survivors of the ancient underwater civilization, or whatever is behind the skullcrawlers on Skull Island.
Victory Might Turn into Defeat
On the other hand, Mechagodzilla might work perfectly. It might defeat Godzilla and the rest of the Titans, completing Monarch’s mission. However, this might turn out to be a worse tragedy than having the Titans around.
At the end of King of the Monsters, we see the role of the Titans in restoring healthy function to the Earth’s ecosystems. Defeating the Titans might throw the earth into even worse chaos than ever. And then Monarch would face the challenge of somehow bringing the Titans back.
It Might Join Godzilla
In the Millennium series of Godzilla movies, Mechagodzilla is built around the skeleton of the Godzilla who appeared and was defeated in 1954 (as depicted in the original Gojira). When cyborg Mechagodzilla faces Godzilla, its latent memories reactivate. Mechagodzilla starts acting like Godzilla, destroying Tokyo. Eventually it runs out of power, and while it’s deactivated, people think they have it under control.
However, it then refuses to kill Godzilla. We might see something similar to this in Godzilla vs. Kong. Some people speculate that the Godzilla skeleton we saw in the 2014 Godzilla movie might be used as the basis for Mechagodzilla, which would set up this plot twist.
It Might Fail at the Box Office
However, the worst possible failure for Monarch would be a failure at the box office. The lackluster box office performance of King of the Monsters has put the future of the franchise at risk. Warner Bros. has already delayed the release of Godzilla vs. Kong from March to November. The studio says that the goal is simply to give time for making a better movie.
However, there is widespread belief that part of the reason is the poor box office performance of King of the Monsters. While King of the Monsters was not a complete bomb, Godzilla vs. Kong has to turn a considerable profit or it is likely that the Monsterverse franchise will be allowed to die off, like Universal’s Dark Universe.
