Not ‘Zilla… But Zillo

Seems Godzilla’s influence isn’t waning as time goes by. Now we get to see a conceptual cousin of the Big G in a giant monster vs the Jedi free-for-all as the basis of an upcoming episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars titled “The Zillo Beast”. That’s according to Supervising Director Dave Filoni, who commented: “The format of the show allows us to do a lot of different things, and George came to us with the idea – basically – of doing a Clone Wars take on Godzilla.”

Not that the monster looks much like Godzilla, mind you. It’s the principle of the thing, I guess.

Synopsis:

In trying to turn the tide of a battle on Malastare, Chancellor Palpatine orders the Jedi to unleash the Republic’s newest super-weapon, an untested electron bomb. Unfortunately the bomb awakens a fearsome monster of legendary ferocity [… as they do].

Trailer:

Filoni added:

“[George] knows I’m a big Godzilla fan, so it was a bizarre story meeting when he presented the idea. I was actually a little intimidated to take it on, because it presented such a production challenge; the model for the Zillo was so much bigger and more complex than anything we’d done before. This whole episode showcases a scope we haven’t really seen yet in The Clone Wars. It’s huge. Luckily, a giant monster in Star Wars isn’t that absurd. And we were able to add our own signature, because it’s the nature of the Jedi to want to subdue the beast rather than to destroy it – just as it’s the nature of the power-mongers to want to harness the Zillo’s power. The result is a lot of fun – big, destructive fun.” (Comic Vine)

“The Zillo Beast” airs Friday, April 19 on Cartoon Network at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT.

• Source: Comic Vine

Addendum: Some more pictures and some information:

According to Gojirasaurus on the Toho Kingdom forums there will be two episodes:

First takes place apparently on Malastare (hence those Dugs running away from it in that one screenshot), where they first encounter/awaken the thing, and capture it.  The second will feature the Zillo Beast being brought back to Coruscant, which will inevitably lead to a King Kong-esque escape sequence, and massive destruction.

He points out that Coruscant is “basically one big city covered in layer upon layer of kilometers-high buildings, with only a few tiny spots on the whole planet’s surface not covered by any structures whatsoever. That is one HECK of a playground to set a kaiju loose in!”