Bagan (SNES)

Bagan's History

Bagan (バガン Bagan) is an ancient super kaiju who made his official debut in the 1993 Godzilla game Super Godzilla.

While Bagan has never made an on-screen appearance, he is particularly well-known for his numerous planned but ultimately scrapped film roles. The first proposed appearance of Bagan was Resurrection of Godzilla, a film proposed by Tomoyuki Tanaka in 1980 as a revival of the Godzilla franchise, which was replaced with The Return of Godzilla. This version of Bagan was an ancient shapeshifting god monster that took three different forms: the dragon-like Sacred Dragon Beast, the ape-like Sacred Monkey Beast, and the fish-like Sacred Water Beast. In the later 1983 revision of this proposal, Bagan eventually transformed into a huge totem-like amalgamation of all three forms, only to be defeated by Godzilla.

Another version of Bagan was proposed for the film Mothra vs. Bagan, a film starring Mothra that would have been set in the same universe as the Heisei Godzilla films. This Bagan was an ancient demonic beast that was sealed away in the Himalayas in ancient times, only to be reawakened in the modern day by global warming. Bagan would have fought Mothra in a final confrontation in Bangkok, being defeated by the combined efforts of Mothra and her larva. In the first version of the film, similarly to Resurrection of Godzilla, Bagan would have had three forms: the Spirit God Beast, Dragon God Beast, and Demon God Beast forms. Later, however, it was decided for Bagan to only have a single form. This same version of Bagan was planned to be further explored in the third entry of the Heisei series, Godzilla 3. When Mothra vs. Bagan was scrapped, this project was reworked into Godzilla vs. Bagan, which was itself eventually replaced with Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah. Bagan was potentially considered for another film, also titled Godzilla vs. Bagan which, according to Takao Okawara, was an early version of Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, and finally he was considered for Yamato Takeru II, an unmade sequel to Toho's 1994 fantasy film Orochi, the Eight-Headed Dragon. Though all of Bagan's film appearances were scrapped, he was featured as the final boss in the 1993 Super Nintendo game Super Godzilla, and also made an appearance in Godzilla Movie Studio Tour.