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Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’s Mothra cameo almost didn’t happen!
Warning! Spoilers for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire to follow! Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is currently taking over theaters, and it turns out that one of the biggest cameos almost didn’t make it into the movie! Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire expands the MonsterVerse with a new entry that teams up Kong with Godzilla once more in order to take on two powerful new Titans before they escape the Hollow Earth. It’s here that Mothra is involved in the film in a surprise third act reveal with a prophecy that connects all of the Titans together.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire explains that Jia actually plays an important part in bringing Mothra to the scene in order to get Kong and Godzilla to work together to fight the true enemy. Thanks to Jia, Mothra is summoned within the Hollow Earth and helps the Titans fight against Skar King and Shimo. But as it turns out, Mothra almost wasn’t in the movie as Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire director Adam Wingard explained that there was a whole other Titan named Phosphera that was used in Mothra’s place just in case they weren’t able to get the famous kaiju for the film.
Godzilla x Kong: What Is Phosphera?
“There was briefly another character called Phosphera that we had in place of Mothra. But Mothra was always what the character was written around,” Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire director Adam Wingard revealed to The Wrap. “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.”
“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,” Wingard continued and explained that the film really would’ve felt off without Mothra as it was the plan to include it all along. “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.”
What did you think of Mothra’s role in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animation and other cool stuff @Valdezology on X (formerly known as Twitter)!