TITANS VS. KAIJU!

The new Godzilla movie series is shaping up to be a pretty big deal. Multiple sequels are being planned and the director, Michael Dougherty, has envisioned a brand new "monsterverse" that includes his new term for the traditional kaiju.

Why Godzilla & Others Are Called Titans In The MonsterVerse, Not Kaiju
Godzilla: King of the Monsters director, Michael Dougherty reveals why Monarch switched to calling the monsters Titans instead of MUTOs or kaiju.
By Sarah Moran | April 23, 2020 | SCREENRANT

Godzilla: King of the Monsters director, Michael Dougherty reveals why Monarch switched to calling the monsters Titans instead of MUTOs, and why they didn't want to refer to them as kaiju. King of the Monsters released in 2019 as a sequel to Gareth Edwards' Godzilla and as the next installment in the MonsterVerse following Kong: Skull Island. The movie introduces several more of these titanic beasts and sets the stage for the epic showdown the franchise is set to feature next - Godzilla vs Kong.

Among the Titans introduced in King of the Monsters are some of Godzilla's most famous foes and allies: Mothra, Rodan, and Ghidorah. In addition to these classic creatures from Toho's Godzilla films, King of the Monsters introduces brand new Titans created especially for the MonsterVerse like Behemoth, Methuselah, and Scylla. Similarly, King of the Monsters also sees the return of the MUTO, the creature introduced in 2014's Godzilla. As established in that first film, MUTO isn't a name but an acronym for Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism and a designation for any newly discovered giant monster. However, King of the Monsters changes this by having Monarch refer to the monsters as Titans and only referring to that one specific monster as a MUTO. The change did not go unnoticed by fans and King of the Monsters director, Michael Dougherty has now addressed why it happened.

During a live tweet-a-long for a Godzilla: King of the Monsters watch party, Dougherty (tweeting via the official King of the Monsters' Twitter account) shared their reasoning for switching up the monster's designations. Not only that, he explained why the MonsterVerse didn't simply refer to them with the commonly used Japanese term for these sorts of giant monsters - kaiju. Read Dougherty's three-point explanation, below.

"1) People have asked why we refer to the creatures as Titans instead of MUTOs or Kaiju. 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.

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.

3) Kaiju was already taken by @PacificRim, but I like the idea that the English translation of Kaiju could be Titan, because then everybody wins."

Admittedly, it would be really frustrating to keep 17 different MUTOs straight, so giving each of them a unique name helps the audience follow along as more are seen awakening throughout the movie. Within universe, the explanation is more scientific, with new species being identified and therefor no longer able to be considered unidentified. The switch to Titans also makes the most sense given the mythic quality King of the Monsters gives its monsters, too. Of course, none of this explains why those first MonsterVerse creatures are still called MUTOs, but then King of the Monsters does already have a bunch of new monsters to name and fans were likely to keep referring to them as MUTOs regardless.

Most fans would also agree, though, that their first choice for what to call the giant monsters in King of the Monsters is kaiju - a Japanese word that actually means "strange creature" and for most foreign audiences is understood to mean those strange creatures of massive size who rampage cities. However, as Dougherty rightly notes, the term kaiju most recently appeared in the Pacific Rim movies, so to avoid any confusion or appearance that they were ripping off those movies, Godzilla: King of the Monsters opted for Titans. It isn't a perfect solution, and of course there will always be fans who continue referring to the Titans as kaiju, but surely most will agree Titan is an improvement over MUTO.

[SOURCE CREDIT: screenrant.com.]