Warner Bros. and Legendary’s MonsterVerse franchise has had quite an interesting trajectory, starting off with director Gareth Edwards’ realistic, slow-burn approach in Godzilla (2014) and now building up to the anime-inspired, fantastical thrills of director Adam Wingard in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. The franchise has wildly varied in tone across its other films, like Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla: King of the Monsters, leading to inconsistent box office results. 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong, however, felt like a real turning point for the MonsterVerse in which many of the previous core complaints from both audiences and critics were addressed. The colorful cast of human characters had a fun role in the plot, and the promise of Godzilla and Kong’s epic showdown lived up to everyone’s expectations and then some.
Additionally, Godzilla vs. Kong was one of the few relative box office successes of the COVID-19 pandemic despite it also having a day-and-date release on the Max streaming service. A stronger reception from audiences and critics, backed up by a hefty $470 million global box office gross, suggested that this franchise might actually have more life in it than some skeptics originally thought. Thus, writer-director Adam Wingard returned for a sequel, the only filmmaker in the MonsterVerse to do so. Current Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire box office predictions suggest that it could once again overperform overseas in international markets like China. To the fans eager for more epic Kaiju action, this means that another MonsterVerse movie is all but inevitable.
Adam Wingard Teases His Plans for Another MonsterVerse Sequel
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is the fifth entry in the MonsterVerse. Currently, another Godzilla x Kong sequel or spin-off has not yet been greenlit or announced. Warner Bros. and Legendary are more than likely waiting to see how the latest MonsterVerse film performs before getting ahead of themselves, or at least that’s what the film’s director thinks. During an exclusive interview with DiscussingFilm, writer-director Adam Wingard revealed that while there is no official update on another Godzilla/Kong crossover or sequel happening at this moment, he definitely already has plans ready in his head. More specifically, when we asked if a “Wingard MonsterVerse trilogy” could be completed one day, he expressed a desire to make that dream a reality. Read his full quote below:
“The whole idea that if you’ve done two movies, like, maybe you should just go ahead and do a third because, as you said, there’s a trilogy in there. I definitely think there’s more story to this, and I think that I have more story to tell. But it just depends on how [Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire] does and how things kind of shape out. I know that sounds like a bullshit diplomatic answer (laughs). But the truth is, If I’m going to be completely honest with you, I do have more story to tell with these monsters and I know where I’d go with it. I would be very excited to be able to come back on for another one if things worked out!”
The Original MonsterVerse Plan
Fans were originally led to believe that the MonsterVerse was set to end after Godzilla vs. Kong. Since its conception, the franchise had been structured around bringing two of cinema’s greatest movie monsters, Godzilla and King Kong, face to face for the first time since 1962’s King Kong vs. Godzilla. It was also originally reported that Warner Bros. was going to lose the rights to Godzilla after this massive crossover so Toho Co., Ltd. could produce another Japanese Godzilla film without there being a conflict of interest. Obviously, these plans eventually changed somewhere down the line.
Toho eventually started pre-production on Godzilla Minus One in 2019 with award-winning filmmaker Takashi Yamazaki at the helm. Like every other project at that time, it would soon face a massive delay in the wake of the pandemic. By the time Godzilla Minus One was completed and made its way to theaters in the United States, audiences were hungry to see the King of the Monsters in a more dramatic story. It broke box office records to become the highest-grossing Japanese film ever in the West. More recently, writer-director Takashi Yamazaki and his VFX team won Best Visual Effects at the 2024 Oscars — the first-ever Academy Award win in the Godzilla franchise’s 70-year history.
In a recent promotional interview for IMAX, Godzilla Minus One director Takashi Yamazaki sat down with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire director Adam Wingard to discuss the diversity of the Godzilla franchise. Yamazaki revealed himself to be a fan of Wingard’s Showa era-inspired take on the iconic giant lizard, stating, “Together, we are maintaining the wide spectrum of this Godzilla IP.” Furthermore, offering audiences both the more drama-focused storytelling of Minus One and the throwback silliness of The New Empire is “the best for Godzilla,” says Yamazaki.
Could there be a Sequel to Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire?
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire forces its two titular monsters to team up to take down a colossal undiscovered threat hidden in the depths of Hollow Earth. The two earned each other’s respect after they destroyed Mechagodzilla together, but it’s going to take a lot more than that to defeat the Scar King. An orange simian titan, the nefarious Scar King commands an army of great apes with his whiplash — a giant whip made out of the skeletal vertebrae column of another dead titan. This new mythic chapter in the MonsterVerse explores the origins of these titans, revealing ancient rivalries that go as far back as the first ice age.
Returning from Godzilla vs. Kong are Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) and her adopted daughter Jia (Kaylee Hottle), who’s the last of the indigenous Iwi tribe from Skull Island. The titan conspiracy theorist and podcaster Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry) makes a comeback as well, boosting the movie’s main team of human characters with his giant monster expertise. Meanwhile, Dan Stevens, who starred in filmmaker Adam Wingard’s cult thriller The Guest, is introduced to the franchise as Trapper, another titan specialist and medic with a larger-than-life personality.
These brave humans travel deep into Hollow Earth to help unravel the mysteries of Godzilla and Kong’s history, revealing that the MonsterVerse is much bigger than some can even imagine. One example of this comes in the form of the new “mini Kong” titan named Suko. So, seeing how director Adam Wingard continues to widen the horizons of the MonsterVerse in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, the answer to the question of whether there could be another sequel is an obvious yes. But, as Wingard said himself, this all depends on how this latest Kaiju flick performs at the box office.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire premieres in theaters on March 29!
Release Date: March 29, 2024.
Directed by Adam Wingard.
Screenplay by Terry Rossio, Simon Barrett, & Jeremy Slater.
Story by Terry Rossio, Adam Wingard, & Simon Barrett.
Based on Godzilla by Toho Co., Ltd.
Produced by Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni, Brian Rogers, Mary Parent, Alex Garcia, & Eric McLeod.
Main Cast: Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Dan Stevens, Kaylee Hottle, Alex Ferns, Fala Chen, & Rachel House.
Cinematographer: Ben Seresin.
Composers: Tom Holkenborg (Junkie XL) & Antonio Di Iorio.
Production Company: Legendary Pictures.
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Runtime: 115 minutes.
Rated PG-13.
