What may have roared…
I’ve had a Godzilla/Disney crossover on my mind lately. Last week, Disney-owned Marvel Comics (Side note: Even over a decade, multi-billion-dollar film franchise, and several theme park attractions later, that STILL reads as wild to the 12-year-old theme park and comic book fanatic inside me) announced that the company was launching a new crossover next year built around the company’s adaptation of Godzilla (who starred in an in-universe Marvel Comics series in the 1970s) battling a series of the publisher’s most popular characters including the Fantastic Four, Hulk, Spider-Man, the X-Men, and Thor. Beyond getting me excited to read this upcoming Godzilla vs. Marvel one-shot comics, that announcement got me thinking about the time Godzilla almost came to a ride in EPCOT.
Yes, you read that right Godzilla almost came to EPCOT.
During the 1980s and 90s, there were countless plans to expand the park’s World Showcase (sadly, something that seems unlikely to happen these days). Specifically, there were several proposals to add rides to that area of the park, since at the time there were only two: Mexico’s El Rio Del Tiempo and Norway’s Maelstrom. (Good thing those days over… right?)
One of the rides to make it to the concept art stage was a massive indoor roller coaster set inside a replica of Mt. Fuji that would have towered over the park’s Japan pavilion. In one planned version of the attraction, the ride would have culminated with an encounter with a massive Godzilla inside the mountain.
For several reasons, the ride never came to fruition. While theme park urban legend says that then-EPCOT-sponsor Kodak put the kibosh on the coaster because Mt. Fuji sounded too similar to their then-rival Fujifilm, it seems more likely that — like many unbuilt EPCOT expansions — the rides couldn’t find a sponsor and in-turn was financially unfeasible.
In addition, Disney would have needed to acquire the rights to use Godzilla in their park from Toho, the company that created Godzilla and still retains the rights to the character. While not impossible, it would have added another layer of potential complication to the character’s inclusion in the ride had Disney moved it beyond the blue sky planning stage.
Had Disney and Toho come to an agreement to include Godzilla in a potential attraction, it would likely be seen as a boon right now as the character is undergoing a renaissance. In addition to the aforementioned Marvel series, the character has appeared in two successful films in the last several years: in both the popular English language Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, as well as the Japanese sleeper hit Godzilla Minus One, which was the latest installment in the original franchise. This rise in popularity will likely only rise as next year marks the 70th anniversary of the character’s U.S. debut.
The legendary Godzilla, one of film’s most famous monsters, was once planned to be a part of a planned EPCOT attraction. Stay tuned to AllEars for more on Disney World history.
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Do you wish Godzilla was present in EPCOT? Or if there were a Mt. Fuji attraction for that matter? Let us know in the comments below.
That would have been awesome!!! Of course, like many die hard World Showcase traditionalists now would do, the outcry back then would have been pretty epic. Since it was before social media, it may have made it.
I am all for more rides in the Showcase that tie into Disney’s OG material and Pixar. I am not as much of a fan of the newer acquisitions, although I LOVE Guardians of the Galaxy. I would love to see to see a ride tie in with Mulan, Snow White, Aladdin and either Mary Poppins or Alice. I am aware that Snow and Aladdin have attractions in other parks, but, the more the merrier!
Didn’t EPCOT have Horizons, World of Motion, Spaceship Earth, and Living with the Land.
While not thrill rides, they were rides.
Yes, Epcot did have these wonderful rides in the Future World section of Epcot. But since this article seems to be discussing just World Showcase, that’s why it lists only two rides. Those were the sole rides in World Showcase, with its other attractions being movies or shows, museums, restaurants, shops, and iconic sets representing key features of each country.