King Ghidorah (キングギドラ Kingu Gidora) is a three-headed dragon kaiju that first appeared in the 1964 Godzilla film, Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster.
Having been featured in four films and a television series, the Showa King Ghidorah is the incarnation of the character with the most onscreen appearances to date. An evil extraterrestrial three-headed dragon, King Ghidorah attacked Venus over 5,000 years ago, effortlessly eradicating the planet's advanced civilization. In the 20th century, King Ghidorah arrived on Earth inside of a meteor and prepared to do the same to it. However, Mothra was able to convince Godzilla and Rodan to join forces with her to fight King Ghidorah off and send him back into outer space. In the year 196X, King Ghidorah was now terrorizing Planet X, and was known by the native Xiliens as "Monster Zero." The Xiliens convinced humanity to allow them to bring Godzilla and Rodan to Planet X, where they fought and defeated King Ghidorah once again. However, the Xiiens had double-crossed mankind, and unleashed King Ghidorah, Godzilla, and Rodan on the Earth under their mind control, demanding the planet's surrender. A group of scientists and astronauts were able to sever the Xiliens' mind control and defeat the invaders, while the now free Godzilla and Rodan fought King Ghidorah off once again. Sometime later, King Ghidorah was now under the control of the M Space Hunter Nebula Aliens, and was sent to Earth alongside their cyborg monster Gigan to assist in their invasion. Godzilla and his ally Anguirus both escaped from Monster Island and battled Gigan and King Ghidorah in Tokyo, with the battle eventually moving to the Nebulans' base of operations at World Children's Land. With the assistance of a group of humans, Godzilla and Anguirus were able to send King Ghidorah and Gigan retreating into space. King Ghidorah next returned to Earth as a pawn of the Garogas, and was fought and defeated by the hero Zone Fighter. At the end of the 20th century, the Kilaaks deployed King Ghidorah to battle the legion of Earth's monsters at Aokigahara after their mind control over them was severed. This time, King Ghidorah would not escape with his life, and the space demon was brutally and decisively killed by Godzilla and his allies.
