MonsterVerse Titans: 11 Entries Across Five Films, With Locations

There is no official count of MonsterVerse Titans, but the five films name 11 entries (Titans, creatures and one machine). The films never state a total, so a number for the Titans alone would be a guess.

The word Titan is used on screen for the biggest names, including Godzilla, Kong, Mothra, Rodan, King Ghidorah and Shimo. Others, such as the MUTOs, the Skullcrawlers, the Skar King and Suko, are creatures, and Mechagodzilla is a machine. That makes six Titans, four creatures and one machine.

The films that introduce them are Godzilla (2014), directed by Gareth Edwards, Kong: Skull Island (2017), directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts, Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), directed by Michael Dougherty, Godzilla vs. Kong (2021), directed by Adam Wingard, and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024), also directed by Wingard. For the order they arrive in, see MonsterVerse movies in order.

Where do they live? Godzilla roams the oceans and surfaces in Honolulu, San Francisco, Boston, Hong Kong and Rome. Kong starts on Skull Island, fights Godzilla in Hong Kong and ends up ruling a tribe in Hollow Earth. The MUTOs hatch in Japan and travel through Hawaii and Las Vegas to San Francisco. The Skullcrawlers stay on Skull Island. Mothra hatches at a Monarch outpost, King Ghidorah is freed in Antarctica, Emma Russell releases Rodan along with other Titans, and all three are part of the Boston battle. The Skar King and Shimo come from Hollow Earth and spill into Rio de Janeiro. Each creature's fate spoils the film it comes from. Monarch, the organization that tracks them, has its own guide: Monarch Legacy of Monsters.

Godzilla is the MonsterVerse's central Titan, an ancient predator introduced in Godzilla (2014) whose signature weapon is atomic breath. He hunts the MUTOs because they are his natural prey, and the film frames the 1954 nuclear test at Bikini Atoll as a secret attempt to kill a giant creature, which leads to the founding of Monarch.

He uses atomic breath to finish the female MUTO in San Francisco before collapsing from exhaustion. When he wakes and walks back into the sea, the media call him the King of the Monsters. In Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) a military weapon seems to kill him, he is revived when Ishiro Serizawa sets off a nuclear device, and he kills King Ghidorah with a powerful atomic pulse.

In Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) he attacks an Apex Cybernetics facility for no clear reason and fights Kong in Hong Kong. By Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024) he patrols the surface and soaks up radiation. After Shimo's power starts a new ice age in Rio de Janeiro, he melts the ice with his atomic breath and then goes back to rest in the Colosseum in Rome. For more on the character, see Godzilla in the MonsterVerse, and for the fight see Godzilla vs Kong who wins.

Kong is the giant ape and guardian of Skull Island, introduced in Kong: Skull Island (2017). In the 1973 setting, Monarch official Bill Randa leads an expedition that drops seismic charges, and Kong smashes the helicopters in response.

The film establishes his rule: he protects the island from the reptilian Skullcrawlers, and Captain James Conrad, Mason Weaver and Hank Marlow see that he is gentle toward those who do not threaten him. After Lieutenant Colonel Preston Packard's men burn him with napalm, Kong kills Packard and, with human help, kills the giant Skullcrawler. Kong watches the survivors leave.

In Godzilla vs. Kong he lives in a Monarch dome, bonded with Jia, and later takes a glowing axe made from a Godzilla dorsal plate. In Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire he searches Hollow Earth for others of his kind, finds a hidden tribe of apes, gets a prototype glove from Trapper that restores his strength, and ends as leader of his tribe. His profile is at Kong in the MonsterVerse.

The MUTOs are a male and female pair of giant creatures, introduced in Godzilla (2014) as the film's antagonists. The first appears as a huge chrysalis feeding on the reactors at the ruined Janjira nuclear plant, and it hatches as a winged creature that escapes and kills Joe Brody in the chaos.

A second, larger female MUTO then appears, and the two head toward each other, wrecking Hawaii and Las Vegas along the way. The military plans to lure all the creatures out to sea and destroy them with nuclear warheads, but the female eats most of the warheads. Dr. Ishiro Serizawa and Dr. Vivienne Graham explain that the MUTOs are Godzilla's natural prey.

Their threat drives the whole film: it is the reason for the warheads, the reason for the chase and the reason Ford Brody ends up on a boat in San Francisco Bay. Godzilla kills the male, then finishes the female with atomic breath.

Skullcrawlers are the reptilian predators that live on Skull Island, and they first appear in Kong: Skull Island (2017) as the enemy Kong exists to hold back. The survivors learn what they are from Hank Marlow, a pilot who has been stranded there for nearly 30 years and who tells them the seismic bombing has woken the creatures up.

On the river journey, the group floats a boat built from wrecked planes and loses people to the island's wildlife as it goes. One Skullcrawler kills Randa and several soldiers, and it dies only when Mason Weaver sets off a gas explosion.

The biggest one comes out of the lake once Packard's men have drawn Kong to the water. Kong kills it with human help. Marlow had warned that losing Kong would hand the island to the Skullcrawlers, so the fight shows what his guardianship has been holding off.

Mothra is a winged Titan introduced as a larva in Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), who sacrifices herself to pass her energy to Godzilla. Emma Russell and her daughter Madison watch her hatch at a Monarch outpost, and Emma calms her with the Orca device, which can communicate with Titans.

Mercenaries then raid the base, and Mothra escapes and builds a cocoon. Later she defeats Rodan and joins the battle against King Ghidorah in Boston, where she gives up her life to pass her energy to Godzilla. The film ends with hints of a possible second Mothra egg.

In Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire she is worshipped by the Iwi, the native people first met on Skull Island, and Jia awakens her. She calms Godzilla after his short fight with Kong, helps face the Skar King's forces, and later restores the barrier that protects the Iwi. See Mothra in the MonsterVerse for the character page.

Rodan is a flying Titan introduced in Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019). Emma Russell releases him along with other Titans, arguing that waking them will heal the planet.

King Ghidorah defeats Rodan, and later Mothra defeats him as well, which makes his fight record in the film a poor one. He is part of the group of Titans that bow to Ghidorah when the three headed creature is named the new leader, and he bows again to Godzilla once Ghidorah is dead. That record shows him following whoever is on top.

His earlier appearance is easy to miss. The post credit scene of Kong: Skull Island (2017) shows classified footage of cave like images of Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra and Ghidorah, so he was depicted in cave art one film before he arrived.

King Ghidorah, first called Monster Zero, is a three headed Titan freed in Antarctica in Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019). Emma Russell frees him, and he kills Dr. Vivienne Graham and flies away almost at once.

In his first fight with Godzilla, a military weapon appears to kill Godzilla but leaves Ghidorah unharmed. Monarch then names him King Ghidorah, and the other Titans bow to him as the new leader. The final battle takes place in Boston, around Fenway Park, where Godzilla, powered up, kills him.

His story does not end there. In a post credit scene, Alan Jonah's group buys his severed left head in Mexico. In Godzilla vs. Kong, the head becomes the link that Apex uses to pilot Mechagodzilla. See King Ghidorah in the MonsterVerse for his character page.

Mechagodzilla is a giant machine, not a living Titan, and Apex Cybernetics unveils it late in Godzilla vs. Kong (2021). Apex's boss, Walter Simmons, justifies the project by saying humans need some way to stop the Titans.

What drives the machine is a link to King Ghidorah's severed head, and through it Mechagodzilla takes on Ghidorah's will. In Hong Kong it kills Simmons and overpowers Godzilla, the one time in the series an opponent beats him cleanly for a stretch.

Two humans turn the fight. Nathan Lind revives Kong with an electrical shock, and Josh Valentine disrupts the machine's controls. Godzilla then charges the axe with his atomic breath, and Kong uses it to destroy Mechagodzilla. Its character page is at Mechagodzilla in the MonsterVerse.

The Skar King is the tyrannical ape who serves as the main villain of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024), ruling a hidden tribe of apes deep in Hollow Earth. Kong finds that tribe during his search for others of his species.

A crystal is the source of his power: with it he forces the ice breathing Shimo to do what he wants. When Kong, Godzilla and Mothra travel to Hollow Earth to confront his forces, the crystal and its master are the obvious targets.

He and Shimo get away through a portal to Rio de Janeiro, where Shimo's power begins a new ice age. Suko then smashes the crystal with Kong's axe, Shimo turns on the Skar King and freezes him, and Kong shatters him. His page is at Skar King in the MonsterVerse.

Shimo is an ice breathing Titan introduced in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024). The film treats him as a captive more than a villain, because the Skar King uses a crystal to force him to obey.

Shimo injures Kong's arm, which is why the Titan veterinarian Trapper builds a prototype glove that restores Kong's strength. Once in Rio de Janeiro, Shimo's power starts a new ice age, and Godzilla later melts the ice with his atomic breath.

When Suko destroys the control crystal with Kong's axe, Shimo is freed and turns on the Skar King. He then returns to Hollow Earth with Kong and Suko. His profile is at Shimo in the MonsterVerse.

Suko is a young ape of the hidden Hollow Earth tribe, not a Titan, and he destroys the Skar King's control crystal in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024). Kong discovers him in the tribe that the Skar King rules.

He matters because of a single act: Suko destroys the control crystal with Kong's axe, which frees Shimo and breaks the Skar King's hold. Without that moment, the final battle would depend only on Kong's strength.

At the end Suko goes back to Hollow Earth with Kong and Shimo, and Kong takes his place as leader of his tribe. That leaves Kong with a family and a community, and it points to a Hollow Earth with more Titans and more questions for later films.

In my opinion, Godzilla is the strongest Titan in the MonsterVerse, followed by Kong, King Ghidorah, Mechagodzilla and Mothra, ranked on what each does on screen in the five films. Perhaps the fairest test is who wins fights and who still stands at the end. Suko is not ranked because he is a young ape rather than a Titan.

1. Godzilla. He kills both MUTOs, survives a military weapon, kills King Ghidorah and is the creature the other Titans bow to.
2. Kong. He beats a giant Skullcrawler and, with the axe, destroys Mechagodzilla, though Godzilla gets the better of him in Hong Kong.
3. King Ghidorah. He defeats Rodan, seems to survive the military weapon that downs Godzilla, and leads the other Titans until Godzilla powers up.
4. Mechagodzilla. It overpowers Godzilla for a stretch, but it needs Ghidorah's head and Apex's control to do it.
5. Mothra. She defeats Rodan and passes her energy to Godzilla, which is the most useful thing any Titan does in that fight.
6. Shimo. His ice power starts a new ice age and injures Kong, but a crystal controls him.
7. Rodan. He is beaten by both King Ghidorah and Mothra.
8. The Skar King. He rules by control rather than strength, and Kong shatters him.
9. The MUTOs (the female MUTO). She eats most of the warheads, but Godzilla finishes her.
10. The Skullcrawlers (the giant Skullcrawler). It is huge, yet Kong beats it with human help.

If you only watch one Titan fight, I would point you to Godzilla vs. Kong for the scale. If you want the creature design at its most grounded, start with Godzilla (2014).