Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire Director Reveals Why the Monsters Have New Looks

Ahead of the release of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, there has been a lot of fan discussion around the changes being made to the title characters. It’s the kind of thing we’re used to seeing in superhero movies — after all, how can you sell toys based on the new costumes if you don’t make the new costumes? — but a bit less common with something like Godzilla x Kong.  According to director Adam Wingard, he struggled between the choices of just recreating the looks they had in their previous outings, or customizing their look for the plot of the new movie.

He landed, obviously, on the latter. In a new interview, he broke down the logic behind it, saying that he wanted to incorporate the new look into the story.

“Very specifically in the last film, I wanted Godzilla to have a continuity, to look the way that he had in King of the Monsters and the 2014 Godzilla,” Wingard told Total Film, in an issue hitting stands this week. “But then I didn’t get a chance at doing my version of Godzilla. So now I wanted to do different things with the spines, and try different colours. I didn’t want it to just be random; it’s part of the story….And similarly with Kong, I wanted to give him some sort of new look as well. We grew his beard out, and gave him a little bit more grey hair and stuff.”

Here’s the film’s official synopsis: 

This latest entry follows up the explosive showdown of Godzilla vs. Kong with an all-new cinematic adventure, pitting the almighty Kong and the fearsome Godzilla against a colossal undiscovered threat hidden within our world, challenging their very existence – and our own. The epic new film will delve further into the histories of these Titans, their origins and the mysteries of Skull Island and beyond, while uncovering the mythic battle that helped forge these extraordinary beings and tied them to humankind forever.

The film stars Rebecca Hall as Dr. Ilene Andrews; Brian Tyree Henry as Bernie Hayes; Dan Stevens as Trapper; Kaylee Hottle as Jia; Alex Ferns, Fala Chen, and Rachel House.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire will be in theaters on April 12.