Unmade Film
Intended Release: 1995

Godzilla vs. Giant Monster Varan

ゴジラVS伝説獣バラン
[Gojira vs. Densetsu-Ju Baran]

In 1999, a giant monster named Varan awakens. A harbinger of the end times, Varan sets out to destroy the world, only to meet opposition in the form of Godzilla and LittleGodzilla. Together, the two earth defenders manage to overwhelm Varan, with LittleGodzilla even learning how to fire a proper atomic ray during their battle. With the sun rising in the distance, Godzilla and his son swim out towards the horizon as a clock appears onscreen, ticking from 1999 and into the new millennium.

LOST PROJECT HISTORY

An early pitch for what would become the final "Heisei VS Series" movie. Compared to a majority of proposals for a "Godzilla 7", Godzilla vs. Giant Monster Varan would have ended on a much more uplifting note, with Godzilla surviving to the end as Earth's hero. Even LittleGodzilla would evolve throughout the course of the movie, starting off with his Radioactive Bubbles from Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994) before learning how to shoot a radioactive ray like his father. Perhaps the most curious aspect is Varan, who serves as a powerful, apocalyptic beast and the story's main antagonist, a far cry from his portrayals in other Toho movies.

While no substantial aspects of this draft would see use in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995), some would reappear in another unmade entry, the 1995 version of Godzilla vs. Bagan.

Monsters

Background and Trivia

• A synopsis of the plot can be found in John LeMay's The Big Book of Japanese Giant Monster Movies: The Lost Films (ISBN: 1548145254). Though no known elements were carried over to what would become Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995), the book mentions how the film's ending would eventually find use in Godzilla: Final Wars (2004), only "utilized to far less effect."
• Mention of this proposal can be found in Godzilla & Toho Tokusatsu Official Mook vol.21: Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla / Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (ISBN 9784065315187), to include the illustration found in the image gallery below, which was created specifically for use in the mook by Yo★Nakano. When similarities between the description in the mook and the synopsis in John LeMay's The Lost Films book were brought to Yo★Nakano's attention on social media, he was amazed to see such compiled information surface after he had long forgotten about it.
• The Japanese subtitle for Varan is roughly translated as "legendary beast" (伝説獣 - Densetsu-Ju).

Images

Concept Evolution