Will Godzilla Appear in the Next MonsterVerse Movie?
Will Godzilla appear in the next MonsterVerse movie? The team behind Toho's iconic king of the Kaiju has been keeping fans guessing in the period of time following Godzilla vs. Kong. After that event film helped Warner Bros. climb back from the pandemic slump, rumors circulated that director Adam Wingard would continue to shepherd the MonsterVerse franchise – but that Wingard could be looking to do a Son of Kong movie as his followup, potentially leaving Godzilla out of the mix entirely. Now that Godzilla vs. Kong 2 has been officially announced, there's a lot of doubt being cast on the idea of Kong rolling solo.
According to the official Toho Godzilla website, Godzilla will reportedly appear in the next Monsterverse film. This stands in contrast to initial reports that the film may only feature Kong, but everything both ways should be taken with a grain of salt for now. pic.twitter.com/BP6U5gCUjS
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THR was the source of the original rumor that Son of Kong would be the next film in the franchise:
The Hollywood Reporter has learned that Legendary is quietly taking steps to stretch the series into one or more installments, entering early talks with Godzilla vs. Kong director Adam Wingard to return for another round of monster-on-monster mayhem... he and Legendary have been cooking up plenty of ideas already. In fact, one possible title being floated internally? Son of Kong.
To be fair, Son of Kong could've always been intended to be a story of King Kong's offspring – who could have had his own encounter with Godzilla, ensuring that the King of Monsters had a place in the next film. It was just fan speculation that leaned into the idea of troubles that could keep Godzilla out of Legendary's MonsterVerse. There was speculation and rumor that Toho was insistent that Godzilla "win" the fight with Kong, and that the company may not want to continue its working relationship with Warner Bros. on additional projects featuring Godzilla.
When a new Godzilla TV series spinoff for Apple TV+ was announced, it also sparked some speculation that the two titans (Gozilla and Kong) were indeed being split up in order to give the MonsterVerse franchise more reach. However, the official announcement of the sequel to Godzilla vs. Kong has shaken up that idea. Wingard is bringing in just one human lead (so far) in Legion star Adam Wingard, and he has made it clear that in his next MonsterVerse movie, there's only one aspect of the formula he wants to leave out – and it's not Godzilla:
"I think Godzilla vs. Kong is the first time that we've really truly been able to have full sequences where the film leaves the humans and stays with the monsters, just like any other character," Wingard told EW. "That's a big breakthrough VFX-wise and even story-wise. If there's another MonsterVerse movie, in my opinion, it should be the first full-on monster film. I would say, 30 percent humans, the rest monsters, basically flipping the formula of what a lot of these movies generally are. I think people are ready for it."
So, it sounds like Godzilla vs. Kong 2 could have Godzilla, King Kong and a whole lot of other Kaiju, to boot.
Godzilla vs. Kong 2 is currently in production.