Soon, the Earth will shake as two of cinema's most celebrated monsters clash. Though they've
fought each other before, the King of the Monsters and Skull Island's Eighth Wonder
of the World will meet again. Here's everything we know about Godzilla vs. Kong so far.
Godzilla vs. Kong was originally set to open May 29, 2020, almost a year to the day after
Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Then the studio pushed things up a week to May 22, ostensibly
so the flick could take advantage of Memorial Day weekend. Unfortunately, that release date
put the film against some heavy hitters. For example, the ninth Fast & Furious movie was
also supposed to debut that weekend, so Warner Bros. pushed things up yet again to March
13, 2020. Even after that release date was set, chatter from Warner Bros. head Toby Emmerich
suggested that the release date remained flexible as the studio figured certain things out.
It turns out we were right to be skeptical that the March date would hold.
In November 2019, Warner Bros. announced that the film's place on the release calendar was
shifting yet again, this time more drastically. The date was eventually moved to November
20, 2020 ... but how could anyone know what the world had in store? After COVID-19 came
along and thoroughly messed up Hollywood's plans, no one knew exactly when the two kaiju
Titans would duke it out. But then, in December 2020, we got some pretty monumental news.
Warner Bros. announced that it would be simultaneously releasing all of its 2021 films in theaters
and on the streaming service HBO Max. It was a monumental decision ... and one that was
good news for monster fans, as we now know that the battle of the beasts will commence
on March 31, 2021.
"Let them fight."
Godzilla vs. Kong will pick up after the events of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, which set
the stage for a new status quo with Godzilla as the recognized alpha among the resurrected
Titans. With that in mind, we can expect a lot of familiar faces from that film to show
up during the showdown with Kong.
So far, the confirmed returning cast for the film includes King of the Monsters stars Millie
Bobby Brown as Madison Russell and Kyle Chandler as her father, Mark Russell. The Russell family
played a key role in the rise of Godzilla as the alpha after his battle with King Ghidorah
, and the loss of Madison's mother in the struggle only brought father and daughter
closer together amid the wreckage.
It also seems like we might see Zhang Ziyi, who played dual roles in King of the Monsters
as twin Monarch scientists, Dr. Ling Chen and Dr. Ilene Chen. King of the Monsters director
Michael Dougherty set the Chen sisters up in that film to be a new version of Mothra's
twin priestesses, giving them a deeper connection to the Titans in general than perhaps any
other human characters. However, while sources like Flickering Myth have reported that she's
in the film, her name is missing from IMDb, so we'll just have to wait and see if she
actually shows up.
Godzilla vs. Kong will have plenty of new faces to go along with its established stars.
Fans of True Blood and Big Little Lies will be happy to know that Alexander Skarsgård
is playing Nathan Lind. As the actor explained to The New York Times,
"[Lind is] a geologist and works closely with Kong. And what I liked about my character
was he's terrified, he's not brave, he's not equipped to be a leader or a hero, and he
enters this adventure very reluctantly."
Demian Bichir of The Hateful Eight will show up as Walter Simmons, the CEO of a mysterious
corporation called Apex — one that has an axe to grind against the Titans.
And we're really crossing our fingers that Danai Gurira of The Walking Dead and Black
Panther will appear in the film. According to a Deadline report from 2018, she was in
talks to join the cast in an undisclosed role. However, there haven't been any updates since
then, and her name is missing from Godzilla vs. Kong's IMDb page. But even if she doesn't
pop up, the film will feature several other new faces, including Julian Dennison as Madison
Russell's BFF, Rebecca Hall as a scientist with connections to Kong, Brian Tyree Henry
as a disgruntled Apex employee, and more.
The story that will lead us to the titular showdown in Godzilla vs. Kong begins with
Kong: Skull Island, the earliest-set film in the MonsterVerse so far. That story features
a group of Monarch researchers heading to the titular island and discovering the giant
ape known as Kong. When we last left the big ape, he was still on his island, having defeated
the Skullcrawler monsters who also dwelled there.
Skull Island is set in 1973, while the first two Godzilla films take place in the present
day, at a time when Monarch is trying to learn as much as possible about the giant monsters
called Titans, which includes Godzilla. This escalates when a fringe group begins triggering
an accelerated awakening of Titans around the world in an effort to cleanse the planet.
In the process, they release the alien Titan known as King Ghidorah, the giant guardian
moth known as Mothra, and the massive flying creature Rodan.
The climax of King of the Monsters finds Ghidorah and Godzilla engaging in combat to determine
the alpha of the Titans, and with Mothra's help, Godzilla ultimately wins the fight.
It's here, in the wake of Godzilla's victory, that Kong will enter the picture once again.
At the end of King of the Monsters, we learn that some of the Titans have begun moving
to Skull Island, and that ancient drawings reveal that Kong and Godzilla have faced off
before.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters establishes that the only way forward for humanity seems
to be some kind of coexistence with the Titans. While the creatures cause rampant destruction
early on in the film, once Godzilla takes control as alpha, the ecological benefits
of Titan rule begin to reveal themselves. With Godzilla vs. Kong, this strange relationship
between humanity and a group of giant monsters will be explored further, with Monarch trying
to dig deeper into exactly what the Titans are, even as two of the greatest among them
start to do battle. Here's the official synopsis:
"Kong and his protectors undertake a perilous journey to find his true home, and with them
is Jia, a young orphaned girl with whom he has formed a unique and powerful bond. But
they unexpectedly find themselves in the path of an enraged Godzilla, cutting a swath of
destruction across the globe. The epic clash between the two Titans — instigated by unseen
forces — is only the beginning of the mystery that lies deep within the core of the Earth."
More importantly, though:
"Godzilla's out there and he's hurting people and we don't know why!"
We also know that a mysterious corporation called Apex will be playing a part in the
story, most likely as an organization with some nasty plans in store for our oversized
characters. And based on the plot synopsis, promotional images, and the film's trailer,
it looks like we're going to get a glimpse of Kong inside the Hollow Earth. And, oh yeah,
somewhere along the way, the big guy is going to get himself an axe. We're definitely looking
forward to that.
While other franchises might attempt to hang on to a single filmmaker or production team
to handle several films in a row, the MonsterVerse has so far favored a slightly more diverse
approach, drafting a different director for each installment in the series. The franchise
kicked off with Gareth Edwards on Godzilla, continued with Jordan Vogt-Roberts on Kong:
Skull Island, and most recently featured the talents of director Michael Dougherty for
Godzilla: King of the Monsters.
This time around, Adam Wingard, best known for his work in the horror genre on films
like You're Next and The Guest, will be in the director's chair, taking on the biggest
film of his career yet. Joining Wingard behind the camera is Terry Rossio, who has a story
credit on the film. Rossio is no stranger to blockbusters thanks to his time working
on the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise at Disney. And as for the actual screenplay
itself, it was penned by Max Borenstein and Eric Pearson. Borenstein wrote 2014's Godzilla,
and he also worked on AMC's The Terror. As for Pearson, he's been busy in the MCU, writing
scripts for features like Black Widow and TV shows like Agent Carter.
When we think about giant monsters in movies, Godzilla is often viewed as the most ubiquitous
because, well, he's the one with the most movies. He's appeared in film after film over
the 60-plus years since his big-screen debut in Japan, and many of the most famous giant
monsters in movies are best known through their association with Godzilla.
King Kong has his own brand of cultural ubiquity, mostly thanks to his first appearance all
the way back in the 1933 film classic that bears his name. The image of Kong climbing
the Empire State Building, swatting away planes, is seared into pop culture forever, making
him almost as famous as Godzilla, despite appearing in far fewer films.
"It wasn't the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast."
Even Kong, though, can't escape his association with Godzilla because the two have already
met on the silver screen. In 1962's King Kong vs. Godzilla, Japanese studio Toho created
their own variation on Kong, with the added ability to absorb and then redistribute electricity.
But while the new film isn't the first time they've clashed, we definitely shouldn't be
expecting a remake of the original.
In Toho's original King Kong vs. Godzilla, the two monsters duke it out in spectacular
fashion at the summit of Mt. Fuji, and for a little while, it seems like Godzilla really
has Kong on the ropes, even trying to burn his body at one point. But Kong's ability
to absorb electricity comes in handy when a bolt of lightning hits and revives him,
and the fight again picks up intensity, culminating in both monsters falling into the ocean. At
the end, only Kong emerges from the water, but no one ever says that Godzilla actually
died, and of course, the legendary kaiju popped up again just two years later in Mothra vs.
Godzilla.
With this in mind, director Adam Wingard has already promised audiences that his film will
definitely deliver the kaiju fight goods, and that Godzilla vs. Kong will actually declare
a victor. He told Entertainment Weekly in 2017,
"I do want there to be a winner. The original film was very fun, but you feel a little let
down that the movie doesn't take a definitive stance. People are still debating now who
won in that original movie, you know. So, I do want people to walk away from this film
feeling like, 'Okay, there is a winner.'"
In January 2020, the website Godzilla-Movies reported that its sources had divulged that
Mechagodzilla, the legendary robotic kaiju that first appeared in 1974, would be making
an appearance in Godzilla vs. Kong. And ever since the first trailer dropped in January
2021, fans have been going crazy over glimpses of what appears to be some sort of robotic
monster. The same steely beast seems to reappear in a teaser released in March 2021, adding
fuel to the Mechagodzilla fire.
Deepening the mystery, Collider reported in February 2021 that they'd visited the film
set in 2019 and spotted something very unusual. As film critic Matt Goldberg wrote,
"We walked on to the set, and there was a gigantic Ghidorah skull that had been wired
up and made technological. ... It looks like they had taken the organic matter of Ghidorah
and mechanized it into some new kind of mechanized creature."
So, will Ghidorah's severed head be repurposed as Mechagodzilla's? Or will we actually get
to meet that other robo-beast, Mecha-King Ghidorah? We'll know when Godzilla vs. Kong
hits screens on March 31, 2021.
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