2019's Godzilla: King of the Monsters was the third installment in Warner Bros. budding MonsterVerse, a shared cinematic universe of films that includes 2014's Godzilla and 2017's Kong: Skull Island. In the first two films, audiences were introduced to the two titular giant monsters, but the mythology behind them remained cryptic. However, King of the Monsters took things much further by featuring the debut of many, many more giant creatures, such as Rodan, Mothra and King Ghidorah, among others.In the original Japanese Godzilla film series, these monsters were known as Kaiju. However, King of the Monsters changed that by referring to them as Titans. While the change wasn't explained at the time of the film's release, director Michael Dougherty has finally revealed why his Godzilla sequel called the monsters Titans instead of Kaiju.
"People have asked why we refer to the creatures as Titans instead of MUTOs or Kaiju," Dougherty wrote during a live tweet viewing of Godzilla: King of the Monsters. "1) MUTO stands for Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism, so once a creature is identified & classified, it’s technically no longer a MUTO so Monarch had to come up with a new term: Titan."
In 2014's Godzilla, "M.U.T.O.s" was the name given to the two monsters the titular monster fought. They were both classified as Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms by the army and Monarch, and called MUTOs for short. In the sequel however, the military, as well as the organization that keeps track of these monsters, has learned a lot more about the creatures, which means that, as Dougherty explains, they are no longer classified as unidentified. Now, they and Monarch know what these creatures are. And although they no longer call them MUTOs, they don't choose to call them Kaiju. Instead, they opt for a different name.
On Twitter, Dougherty continued by explaining the word "Titan" was chosen to describe the film's monsters. "2) Besides sounding cool, the definition of a Titan matches the history of the creatures as the First Gods and ties back to their ancient mythic roots," the director wrote.
In the three MonsterVerse films, the humans that shared the screens with the titular monsters have made it clear that the creatures have been on Earth for a very, very long time. In fact, it's even said that they are the planet's original rulers -- long before the dinosaurs or man. As we have seen throughout all three films, there is a rich history tied to every monster, from Godzilla and Kong to Ghidorah, who himself was the subject of ancient cave paintings.
In Greek mythology, the Titans were the gods that preceded the Olympians. As Dougherty explains, it's just just like the MonsterVerse's creatures, who were the original gods of the Earth. The name makes sense for this iteration of the Godzilla universe, and it even sets it apart as its own thing. And besides, like the director said, it also sounds pretty cool.
Directed by Michael Dougherty, Godzilla: King of the Monsters stars Vera Farmiga, Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins, Kyle Chandler, Millie Bobby Brown, Bradley Whitford, Thomas Middleditch, Charles Dance, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Aisha Hinds and Zhang Ziyi.