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Early Godzilla 2: King Of The Monsters Concept Art Shows Monarch Underwater Base & Alternate Mothra Designs

Godzilla 2: King of the Monsters boasted of some stunning visuals undoubtedly inspired by its equally gorgeous concept art. We’ve seen a few bits and pieces before but we now have a whole lot more pieces to adore. The Godzilla 2 concept art below is from early pre-production and includes work done by different artists on different parts of the movie.

The first set comes from artist Chris Voy who conceptualized the secret entry into Monarch’s lair as well as the relentlessly escalating Ocean Battle that featured Godzilla, Ghidorah and Rodan. He threw in some commentary about the images, while also expressing astonishment at how similar the final scenes turned out to these early concept art.

Godzilla 2 King Of The Monsters Early Concept Art - Ocean Battle - Chris Voy
A pre-production image for Godzilla King of Monsters. We got to do some fun early days development. Surprisingly, the movie seemed similar to the version we worked on about 3 years ago, maybe they knew what they we’re after? It was also one of the first projects I got to work on after joining the ILM Art Dept. Woohoo! – Chris Voy on his Godzilla 2 Concept Art
Godzilla 2 King Of The Monsters Early Concept Art - Monarch Entrance - Chris Voy
A pre-production image for Godzilla King of Monsters. This unnecessarily perilous entrance to one of the secret Monarch research facilities seemed fitting for an organization so well funded and reckless. What could possibly go wrong? – Chris Voy on his Godzilla 2 Concept Art

We often find multiple concept artists working on blockbuster-level projects. As such, if Voy designed the descent into Monarch, another artist Gia Nguyen worked on the Monarch underwater base itself. Nguyen did multiple versions of the underwater base before a final one was approved. Ngyuen doesn’t shy away from using bluish oceanic tones to paint over the base, almost making it feel camouflaged in the depths of the watery hues.

Finally, we have Luca Nemolato who worked on some alternate designs for Mothra, before we ended up with the ones seen in the movie. Once again, the early concept art does resemble the final look that Mothra winds up with, further echoing Voy’s comments about some concrete plans in place for the movie long before it began filming. Nemolato is gracious enough to acknowledge the involvement of several other people in working with him to help bring these concepts to life.

Concept Art is a vital component of pre-production in big-budget movies. Usually however, early concept art can turn out radically different from the final movie. From the looks of it, the Godzilla 2 team was generally aligned with the direction the movie should take as well as what some of the broader strokes of the major set-pieces would be, which is refreshing to see.

Godzilla 2: King of the Monsters is running in theaters. It recently crossed a major milestone at the US box-office. Let us know what you think of these concept arts in the comments below.