'Godzilla: King of the Monsters' Director On Why Scientist Heroes are Important in Trump Era

Godzilla: King of the Monsters will feature a number of differences from the previous Godzilla film, including a host of other monsters (called Titans) and new characters for fans to meet. One of the bigger changes though is in its protagonist. King of the Monsters won't be following a soldier like last time, instead putting a group of scientists in the hero role, and in addition to simply changing things up for the sequel there's is an additional and very important reason the film is choosing to place those scientists in the lead, and King of the Monsters director Mike Dougherty recently broke down why. It turns out, some of it was thanks to President Donald Trump.

ComicBook.com had the chance to visit the set of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, where we spoke to Doughtery about a number of topics regarding the new sequel. That included the reasoning behind making this group of scientists the central protagonists of the film, and as he explained, part of it had to do with the current outlook towards science, something debated quite often under President Trump.

"The idea of a team of heroes who are scientists really appealed to me," Dougherty said. "You know, that, this isn't a Marvel film where you have people mech suits, or with superpowers, running around, getting into endless fistfights, these are just very intelligent, capable people who are up against impossible odds."

"So in a time wherein our current climate, a time where science is constantly being questioned and targeted, the idea of creating a film where scientists are heroes was really important," Dougherty said.

It will certainly be a different take than the typical one person army that many films focus one, superhero films included. In this case, we'll see a group of brilliant but otherwise ordinary individuals try and make sense of ancient beings who tower above them and can blow a city off the map in 10 minutes, and that's certainly a group we can root for.

Want more Godzilla: King of the Monsters? You can find more of our set visit coverage right here. You can also find the official description below.

"In a time when monsters walk the Earth, humanity's fight for its future sets Godzilla and Kong on a collision course that will see the two most powerful forces of nature on the planet collide in a spectacular battle for the ages. As Monarch embarks on a perilous mission into uncharted terrain and unearths clues to the Titans' origins, a human conspiracy threatens to wipe the creatures, both good and bad, from the face of the earth forever."

Godzilla: King of the Monsters hits theaters on May 31st.

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