Settling on Godzilla’s look was a process for Toho, and one of the earliest designs for the King of the Monsters was actually a giant octopus. As surprising as it may be, one of Japan’s biggest pop culture icons almost looked very different, which tends to happen to characters, especially creatures, during the concept stage.

Godzilla’s appearance has gone through an evolution since his first appearance in the 1954 film, Godzilla. Over the course of 65 years, Godzilla has gone through several design changes, but the core aspects of his image have remained consistent. Apart from the universally disliked 1998 American version which Toho doesn’t even acknowledge as Godzilla, the fan-favorite kaiju has kept his iconic roar, long tail, lizard-like face and snout, back spikes, and atomic breath. These are the qualities that fans look for in every take on Godzilla, who is easily one of the most recognizable movie monsters to ever appear on the big screen.

Interestingly, the image of Godzilla that’s so popular today isn’t how he was originally conceived. When his creator, Tomoyuki Tanaka, first began work on the film that would later become Godzilla between April and May of 1954, Tanaka’s ideas were yet to be fleshed out. All he had was a premise, which was a monster created by nuclear bomb testing combined with some inspiration from the American science fiction movie, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. Deciding on what kind of monster Godzilla should be was a dilemma that had to be carefully weighed, so several ideas were considered, including a giant octopus - not unlike the one that Kong kills in Kong: Skull Island. Interestingly, this idea came from the film’s special effects designer, Eiji Tsubuyara.

Tsubuyara originally suggested that the titular monster be designed as an octopus. This is most likely because Tsubuyara had always wanted to make a movie about a giant octopus, similar to the Kraken. Years before the first Godzilla movie, Tsubuyara wrote a script for a giant octopus movie, but it never went anywhere. Tsubuyara’s hopes for Godzilla were never realized, but years later he did get to use his ideas for other films. Tsubuyara’s interest in this design could be what inspired the decision for King Kong to fight an octopus in King Kong vs. Godzilla. Giant octopuses were also used in the Toho films War of the Gargantuas and Frankenstein vs. Baragon. Tsubuyara was the Director of Special Effects for all three movies.

Tanaka rejected the idea for the octopus in the end, though the reason for this was never quite clear. Other ideas were considered as well, such as a gorilla, but none of them felt right for the movie, so eventually Tanaka just went with the most obvious choice: a dinosaur.  This may have been necessary, since time constraints prevented them from using stop-motion animation. Instead, they needed a monster that could be portrayed by a man in a suit. As a result, “Gojira” was born, and Japanese film history was made.

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