A new Godzilla movie, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, is on the way, making now a great time to delve into the kaiju’s history, including its age.
Godzilla has been appearing on the big screen since the 1954 movie Godzilla and has become a pop culture icon. Since then, the kaiju has gone on to appear in countless Japanese and American films, as well as comic books, video games, and TV shows. Over 70 years, quite a bit of history and lore has been established around the kaiju. As Godzilla (1954) and Godzilla Minus One emphasize, Godzilla was initially created as a symbol of Japanese fear and uncertainty after the country was devastated by the atomic bomb during World War II. While the monster’s story varies from film to film, it is most commonly accepted that it came into being through mutations from nuclear tests and radiation during the war.
However, Godzilla was seemingly awakened and mutated by nuclear tests, not created by nuclear weapons. It is believed the monster evolved from an ancient species and is much older than the 70 years it has been appearing in film.
How old is Godzilla?
Godzilla’s age has never been explicitly confirmed in the Godzilla franchise, but there have been hints about it. Since the kaiju’s debut, it has been established that the monsters evolved from some kind of prehistoric reptilian species and could potentially be millions of years old.
In 2014, the novel Godzilla: Awakening by Greg Borenstein and Max Borenstein was written to serve as a prequel to the MonsterVerse. The book suggests that Godzilla is descended from a species called Titanus Gojira, which evolved during the Permian Period, about 250–300 million years ago. So, this gives us an idea of how old Godzilla’s species is, though it doesn’t confirm the monster’s exact age. Godzilla (2014) also backed up this age range for Godzilla’s species. However, since then, it has been questioned whether Godzilla: Awakening is still canon.
Additionally, just because Godzilla’s species is 250–300 million years old doesn’t necessarily mean Godzilla is specifically that old, too. Recently, writer Greg Keyes, who wrote the novelizations for Godzilla: King of Monsters and Godzilla vs Kong, seemingly gave Godzilla an official age range. He indicated that no one at Legendary believed that Godzilla is hundreds of millions of years old and that the kaiju is most likely actually from the Pliocene Period, which would put it at 2.5–5 million years old.
So, at least in the MonsterVerse, Godzilla could be up to 300 million years old. However, given that it is believed the kaiju is one of the last existing members of its species, it is likely that Godzilla was born as recently as the Pliocene Period. Other Godzilla movies, though, have left the monster’s age ambiguous, making it unclear what the kaiju’s age officially is.
(featured image: Warner Bros.)
