King Ghidorah. Rodan. Mothra. “Doug”? Of these four names from Legendary's MonsterVerse series, one of them sticks out like a sore thumb, right? Well, similar to how the somewhat goofy third head of King Ghidorah in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, was nicknamed “Kevin” by the fans, the lizard-like monster that appears in Godzilla vs. Kong for literally seconds, has been given the nickname “Doug” by the fandom. And it has really caught on.
Godzilla vs. Kong director Adam Wingard and even Legendary itself have adopted the cute nickname for the creature, which, until the fans took over, was simply known as the “Hollow Earth Lizard.” Well, in a recent Twitter post, Legendary provided concept art for the fan-favorite monster, which gives another look at how beastly “Doug” could have been if he was given more screen time. Check out the post down below:
I actually find this pretty hilarious. This truly is epic concept art for a character, who, as I mentioned earlier, is barely in the film at all and didn’t even have a name. This wasn't the case for some of the other titans in the MonsterVerse, such as Methuselah and Behemoth, whose could glimpsed at the end of Godzilla: King of the Monsters. In fact, “Doug” isn’t even a titan at all, which is probably why he wasn’t given a name in the first place. I actually wonder whether Adam Wingard or the heads at Legendary would have even given Doug a second thought if the fans hadn’t taken it upon themselves to give him a name.
This is actually common for internet culture these days, though, and such trends can even lead to memes at times. Earlier this year, fans of the Halo video game series took to the internet in droves when a Brute that didn’t look so good in an early build of the new game was quickly given the nickname “Craig." And just as Legendary has embraced “Doug” with open arms, the Halo Infinite team adopted “Craig” in a similar fashion.
That said, I don’t think anybody is making fun of “Doug” the way fans were making fun of “Craig” when it came to Halo Infinite. In a lot of ways, Doug kind of looks like an evolving form of Godzilla. In the excellent Shin Godzilla, the King of the Monsters actually goes through multiple transformations before he becomes the Big G we all know and love toward the climax of the film. This is also the case in the recent Godzilla: Singular Point, which can be found on Netflix. So one could definitely be forgiven for thinking this concept art is depicting an alternate form of Godzilla, if they weren’t already aware that the fans have already named him.
Personally, I’ve always been one to just give nicknames to creatures in the MonsterVerse if they weren’t already given titles. That’s half of the fun when it comes to all of the different kaiju that have been introduced into this monster-heavy world. We can only hope that we get more MonsterVerse films and more potential "Dougs” from here on out. And honestly, I would really like to see Godzilla and Kong shelved for a little bit so Legendary can focus on more new monsters in this series. Perhaps a movie about the rise of Doug?
Let us know if you'd like to see more of Doug in the MonsterVerse by voting in the poll below!
This poll is no longer available.
