Godzilla 2 director Michael Dougherty just made an announcement to all Godzilla fans out there: be one the lookout for Easter eggs. The director tweeted an image today that should be recognizable to for fans of the 1954 original Godzilla:

[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/Mike_Dougherty/status/897113397539590144[/EMBED_TWITTER]

For those that don’t recognize it, that’s the “Oxygen Destroyer.” In the original 1954 Godzilla, it’s a weapon that destroys oxygen atoms, thus causing the target to asphyxiate and die. The movie wrestles with or not to use the Oxygen Destroyer against Godzilla. On the one hand, Godzilla is a non-stop force of destruction, but on the other hand, the Oxygen Destroyer introduces a powerful new weapon into the world that could be used again, not just against giant monsters, but against nations. For a movie that’s trying to wrestle with nuclear devastation, these are heavy themes, and it’s one of the reasons the original Godzilla remains so powerful.

I’m not sure the Oxygen Destroyer is going to be a big plot point in the new Godzilla movie, and judging by its placement and design, it looks like something that will be glimpsed in the background at most. Additionally, Godzilla 2 doesn’t really seem like humans-vs-godzilla as much as humans trying to figure out what the hell to do as Godzilla fights against other monsters. If the Oxygen Destroyer is nothing more than an Easter Egg, that’s good enough for me, and I’ll be eager to see what else Doughtery has put into the movie.

The upcoming Godzilla sequel opens March 22, 2019 and stars Millie Bobby Brown, Vera Farmiga, Kyle Chandler, Charles Dance, Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins, Bradley Whitford, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Thomas Middleditch, Aisha Hinds, and Zhang Ziyi.

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Image via Warner Bros.
godzilla-remake-monster
Image via Warner Bros.
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Image via Warner Bros.