We’ve seen some fantastic crossovers in cinema history (like “Who Framed Roger Rabbit’s” cartoon characters that made Bob Hoskins hallucinate), some unabashedly dumb but fun ones (“Freddy vs. Jason”), and some cheap, intentionally ludicrous mockbusters that played as a bad joke (“Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus”) in the last couple of decades, for sure. But this unmade 1966 project titled “Batman vs. Godzilla” probably takes the cake, even if it never came to fruition.
According to Grantland, a planned sequel to the Adam West-led “Batman: The Movie” (which released after season 1 of the live-action series concluded) actually had a script (“Batman Meets Godzilla,” commissioned from writer Shinichi Sekizawa) that combined the famous kaiju with the over-the-top slapstick silliness of William Dozier’s popular “Batman” show that ran in the mid-’60s.
Set in Japan, the story would’ve seen Batman, Robin, and Batgirl unite to save the country from an evil German meteorologist, Klaus Finster. Finster claims to “control the weather,” which, apparently, is a codename for having power over Godzilla. Either way, his initial threat is to destroy the entire country unless he gets $20 million in gold from… whomever. But when he learns that the caped duo has been alerted to stop him, he first sends a robotic version of Count Draidl (a friend of Batman and Robin) with “gun eyes” to take care of the two in order to achieve his cunning masterplan. After taking the android out, Batman susses out that the kaiju might be a part of Finster’s scheming, mass destruction and all, and the true circus involving Kabuki shows, samurai swords, Batcopter, spy robots, a Japanese bath house, and Godzilla falling in love is just about to begin.
However bonkers this plot sounds, you’ve got to admit this film would’ve been a spectacle, likely providing material for memes for a lifetime.
Why Batman vs. Godzilla never happened
It would’ve been something, but the intended collaboration between the Japanese film company, Toho (which made the classic 1954 “Godzilla”), the American Greenway Productions (that brought us Adam West’s “Batman” and Bruce Lee’s “The Green Hornet”), and DC Comics didn’t come to fruition. “Batman” creator William Dozier eventually passed on directing a sequel for the big screen. And about two years later, he also had to say goodbye to his show because ABC cancelled it after three seasons and 120 episodes. The Dark Knight comics began to change as well, leaning towards a more grounded and grimmer representation of the Caped Crusader.
The same went for Godzilla, too. After the sequel, “Godzilla Raids Again,” Toho put its kaiju on the bench for seven years until they decided to bring it back for “King Kong vs. Godzilla” in 1962, gradually moving toward a more serious depiction of the creature. The last time we saw the giant lizard on the silver screen was in 2023’s “Godzilla Minus One,” which went on to win an Oscar for visual effects. Given its critical and commercial success, a sequel titled “Godzilla Minus Zero” is currently in the making and is planned to be released later this year.
Ultimately, “Batman vs. Godzilla” remains nothing but a wild concept for fans to entertain, and to imagine what ludicrous foolishness it could’ve been.
