[Editor's note: The following contains spoilers for Godzilla vs. Kong]
At the climax of Godzilla vs. Kong, the two alpha predators receive a common enemy in the form of Mechagodzilla. Like both Godzilla and Kong, even if you’ve never seen any of their previous movies, you’re probably tangentially aware of Mechagodzilla just through cultural osmosis. These movies are built on the names of their monster stars, and since you don’t really want to pick a side between the Godzilla fans and the Kong fans, it’s better to end the movie by having them team up to defeat a common foe.
But where does Mechagodzilla come from? Godzilla vs. Kong is a radical departure from the character’s 1970s origins. The character first appeared in the 1974 film Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla. Appearing at first in the guise of Godzilla, after a fight with the real Godzilla, it was revealed that the fake version was a giant robot controlled by space aliens from Black Hole Planet 3. The aliens saw Mechagodzilla as their ultimate weapon and way to rule the Earth (it should be noted that “giant monster fighting on behalf of invading aliens” had become a plot staple of these Showa era Godzilla movies by this point). With the help of another monster, King Caesar, Godzilla is able to rip off Mechagodzilla’s head and send pieces of his body into the ocean.
Godzilla vs. Kong is slightly different. Using the King Ghidorah stole acquired by Alan Jonah (Charles Dance) in the credits scene of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Apex Cybernetics is able to pull a Pacific Rim and wire that skull to Mechagodzilla where someone links their mind with the mechanized beast. Apex’s big problem is that they don’t have enough power to consistently run Mechagodzilla, which is why Apex head Walter Simmons (Demián Bichir) sends a team down to the Hollow Earth to retrieve a power source that can keep Mechagodzilla up and running. His plan is that rather than leaving the world to the benevolence of the titans like Godzilla and Kong, he wants to control his own titan. However, Mechagodzilla becomes sentient, shows it cannot be controlled, and kills Simmons before running amok. That’s when Godzilla and then Kong come in to stop the mechanized beast with the help of Josh (Julian Dennison) spilling whiskey on a computer. That’s really how they take it down.
It’s not too surprising that Mechagodzilla showed up in Godzilla vs. Kong because the entire Monsterverse has been built on the IP of Toho’s characters plus Kong. Kong isn’t really known for his rogues’ gallery, so that leaves Godzilla, and it’s not like they were going to make the climactic villain a deep cut antagonist like Megalon or Hedorah. Mechagodzilla is a name people know, and people get excited when they recognize the thing. Also, it’s not like the Monsterverse was ever going to do something like the character’s original incarnation, which would require the introduction of space aliens. Mechagodzilla makes sense for what this franchise was going for even if his arrival isn’t a total surprise.
