Godzilla: King Of The Monsters First-Look Photo Teases Godzilla's 'Atomic Breath'

Godzilla: Japanese monster, cinematic icon, and the sufferer of the worst case of halitosis in recorded history. 

Thanks to Entertainment Weekly, we have the first official look at the beast in director Michael Dougherty's Godzilla: King of the Monsters, the long-awaited sequel to the Gareth Edwards-helmed Godzilla from 2014. 

The photo, which comes 10 months after Dougherty teased what Godzilla would look like in the follow-up flick, shows the monster standing in hip-deep water, stretching up toward the pitch-black sky, spewing a stream of "atomic breath" into the stars. 

Dougherty told the outlet that what's depicted in the image is "a very key moment," and that Godzilla's powerful exhalation ability is "a sort of call to arms" — suggesting that whenever the monster fires out that bright blue wave from his mouth, he's either in danger or in need of assistance ahead of a major confrontation. 

And, according to Dougherty, Godzilla: King of the Monsters will feature no shortage of such dust-ups, especially  when people start suspecting that Godzilla might not be the only treacherous brute of his kind.  

"The world is reacting to Godzilla in the same way we would react to any other terrifying incident, in that we are overreacting, he explained. "There's paranoia and endless speculation about whether he is the only one out there or whether we're threatened by others like his kind."

Those worries actually prove to be valid, as Godzilla: King of the Monsters unleashes three new beasts for citizens to freak out about and for Godzilla to fight: the shrieking daikaiju monster Rodan, the colossal imago moth fittingly named Mothra, and Godzilla's ultimate foe, the three-headed King Ghidorah. That atomic breath is definitely going to come in handy during these monster-on-monster smackdowns. 

In addition to the snap of Godzilla in King of the Monsters, EW also rolled out the first peek at Vera Farmiga and Millie Bobby Brown's characters in the film. The two play a mother-daughter pair — the monster-hunting scientist Dr. Emma Russell and teen Madison, respectively — who are kidnapped by a "mysterious organization, with their own plans for the creatures." 

Farmiga is a seasoned actress, racking up credits in The Manchurian Candidate, Bates Motel, and the billion-dollar-earning Conjuring film series, but Brown is a relative fresh face — at least when it comes to the movie scene. Best known for playing Eleven on Stranger Things, Brown will make her film debut with Godzilla: King of the Monsters, due out on May 31, 2019.