The character is usually portrayed as an archenemy of Godzilla and a foe of Mothra, though it has had one appearance as an ally of the latter. Īlthough King Ghidorah's design has remained largely consistent throughout its appearances (an armless, bipedal, golden and yellowish-scaled dragon with three heads, two fan-shaped wings, and two tails), its origin story has varied from being an extraterrestrial planet-destroying dragon, a genetically engineered monster from the future, a guardian monster of ancient Japan, or a god from another dimension. Although the name of the character is officially trademarked by Toho as 'King Ghidorah', the character was originally referred to as Ghidorah or Ghidrah in some English markets. The character was initially created by Tomoyuki Tanaka, Eiji Tsuburaya and Shinichi Sekizawa as an homage to the eight-headed mythological Japanese dragon Yamata no Orochi. King Ghidorah ( キングギドラ, Kingu Gidora) is a fictional monster, or kaiju, which first appeared in Ishirō Honda's 1964 film Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster. Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)

A production image of the first King Ghidorah suit, not fully painted

Century: age of ashes legendary dragons