Toho’s King Kong Almost Fought Mothra (After Godzilla)
After his big fight with Godzilla, King Kong nearly returned for another Toho crossover, this time with Mothra. Since Mothra was a huge sensation in Japan at the time, a movie featuring both Kong and Mothra could have been a massive hit for the studio.
In the early 1960s, Toho acquired the rights to King Kong from RKO to produce a crossover movie of unprecedented proportions, which would pit pop culture icons from America and Japan against each other. After receiving a significant size upgrade from Toho, 1962's King Kong vs. Godzilla saw the two titular monsters square off for what was promoted by Toho as the "battle of the century". The movie proved to be a massive success, prompting Toho to look for other ways to capitalize on big-name crossovers. King Kong never encountered Godzilla again, but he did headline one more movie for the studio, 1968's King Kong Escapes.
In the mid-1960s, Toho and Rankin-Bass had a plan to co-produce Operation Robinson Crusoe: King Kong vs. Ebirah, a movie that would have brought back Toho's interpretation of King Kong for a battle with a giant shrimp called Ebirah. The movie, which was set in the South Seas, would have seen King Kong thrust into a conflict on an island with a terrorist organization, called the Red Bamboo, that was enslaving the island's natives. After Kong defeated Ebirah, Mothra would have arrived on the island to rescue the natives. According to the script, Kong, not knowing what Mothra wanted, would have battled the creature and lost.
If the plot of Operation Robinson Crusoe: King Kong vs. Ebirah sounds familiar, that's because the script ended up being reworked for 1966's Ebirah, Horror of the Deep. Toho had wanted to move forward with King Kong vs. Ebirah, but Rankin-Bass, who had reservations about the project, pulled out. As a result, Toho cut Kong out of the story and replaced him with Godzilla. The problem with this move was that replacing Kong with Godzilla wasn't exactly seamless: fans who have watched the movie have noted that Godzilla's behavior can be out of character at times. That's because the role was actually written for King Kong, not Godzilla.
By being removed from the movie at the last minute, King Kong was denied his chance at another tussle with an iconic Toho kaiju. However, since he was fated to lose, this may not be such a bad thing. Regardless, the chances of a Kong-Mothra battle aren't dead yet, considering that there's a good chance Mothra can return to the MonsterVerse in Godzilla vs. Kong.