Godzilla Vs. Kong's Screenwriter Tried To Bring Mechagodzilla Into An Earlier Film
Godzilla has always been super cool, but what about a Godzilla that's actually a mechsuit? Well, Mechagodzilla was originally intended as an antithesis for the king of monsters, representing attempts to squash a force of nature that wreaks havoc or acts as a benevolent mediator, depending on who you ask. The Gundam version of Godzilla first appeared in 1974's "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla," where a bunch of aliens from Black Hole Planet 3 built a massive robot monster to destroy Godzilla and take over the planet. After thwarted attempts to take down the OG prehistoric beast, humans took matters into their own hands to craft a high-endurance, super-powerful cyborg in 2002's "Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla," who teamed up with other beasts like Mothra to put Godzilla down (and failed).
Coming to the MonsterVerse, Mechagodzilla made its first appearance in Adam Wingard's "Godzilla vs. Kong," where the mecha is controlled telepathically by Ren Serizawa (Shun Oguri), who is guided by a twisted notion to protect Earth by overthrowing Godzilla's title of apex predator. Things take an unexpected turn when Mechagodzilla is taken over by Ghidorah's consciousness (whose remains were used to build the suit), and this leads to several casualties, and an almost-defeated Godzilla. Thanks to Kong, whose arrival allows Godzilla to overpower the suit, the day is saved, putting an end to human ambitions to override the power structure that has been in place since Godzilla's birth.
MonsterVerse writer Max Borenstein, who has worked on all the films in the franchise — except the latest "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" — told Syfy that there was an attempt to introduce the Gundam beast in an earlier film, namely 2019's "Godzilla: King of the Monsters."
We could have had Mechagodzilla in King of the Monsters
"Godzilla: King of the Monsters" hones in on the awakening of the Titans around the world, leading to an uncharacteristic team-up between Godzilla and Mothra to fight Ghidorah and Rodan. The return of these popular beasts should have contributed to this entry's appeal, but a poor, shaky script, along with an utter lack of visual splendor (that is even mildly interesting) squashes the potential of the premise. While Mechagodzilla's premise might have not salvaged these missteps, it could have been interesting to witness the motivations behind the people controlling the suit in a decisive showdown between monsters.
Borenstein explained how the process of introducing Mechagodzilla came to be:
"It took a lot of tinkering to get it to work. Initially, in my first draft of 'Godzilla: [King of the Monsters]', the piece that was in my version was Mechagodzilla appearing in that film. They punted that, but ultimately it was cool to see it re-emerge when I came back in on 'Godzilla vs. Kong'. It made a lot of sense to be there because then you have these two iconic adversaries, but neither one is a villain. So let's introduce an iconic villain."
Borenstein also explained why Mechagodzilla is such a great character, as his presence leads Kong and Godzilla to directly aid humans in "Godzilla vs. Kong," despite the fact that "these creatures are really not representational of human agency." Although this is a world ultimately ruled by monsters, where humans are "expendable amongst the insanity," Mechagodzilla allows disempowered humans to fight the monsters head-on, even if the motivations behind such urges are convoluted. After all, Mechagodzilla will always be powered either by conscience or a complete absence of it, depending on the person faux-piloting the ginormous metal suit.