Bagan (Godzilla)

Development

First conceived by Tomoyuki Tanaka in 1980, the creature was originally called Bakan, and was conceived as a creature inspired by Chinese mythology for a scrapped project titled "Yamatai Kingdom", before being repurposed as a shape-shifting opponent of Godzilla for a proposed screenplay titled Resurrection of Godzilla (1980), as a shapeshifting creature with three different forms, a dragon form, a sea monster form, and a giant ape form.^[1] He could change from one form to another and when he did, he recovered from all the injuries done to its previous form. In the end, Bagan would combine into a single monster with the wings, arms and head of the dragon, the chest, arms, and head of the ape, and the legs, eyes, and mouth of the sea monster. He was stronger in this form, but it could not recover from his injuries, thus in this state, Godzilla could defeat it.^[2][3][4] Bagan was cut from the film because Tomoyuki Tanaka did not have the budget to afford the special effects for the film, and the movie went through several changes until being released as The Return of Godzilla in 1984.^[5][6]

In 1990, Bagan was proposed to have an appearance in a battle against Mothra in Mothra vs. Bagan.^{[7][8][9][10]} He would have appeared as a Yamato dragon beast that lived in Ancient China. His body eventually became frozen in a block of ice in the Himalayan Mountains before being freed in modern times by the use of explosives. He starts to wreak havoc and is unstoppable until Mothra defeats him and saves the world. The film went very far in development, but was cancelled due to the box office failure of Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989), which Toho attributed to an unfamiliar monster being used. Bagan would ultimately be discarded again.^[11]

In 1995, another film was proposed to have included Bagan, named Godzilla vs. Bagan.^[12] During the film's development, however, Bagan was eventually replaced by Destoroyah, and the storyline was rewritten, resulting in the film being renamed to Godzilla vs. Destoroyah.

Abilities

In the unmade screenplay for Return of Godzilla, Bagan is depicted as having the ability to shape-shift. This version could shapeshift into three different forms, with each of them having their own abilities. Each time Bagan changed from one form to another, he fully regenerates any wound inflicted upon him. He could even combine all of his forms into a single, totem-like form.^[13] The shape-shifting aspect of Bagan's character is carried over in the SNES game Super Godzilla, where he initially appears in his flying "Energy form", before transforming into his "Beast form".

Video games

• Super Godzilla (SNES - 1993)

• Godzilla Movie Studio Tour (Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Macintosh - 1996)
• Godzilla Battle Line (Android, iOS, Windows - 2021)

Television

• Godziban (web 2019 - 2025)