Not unlike the revisionist history that underpins Paramount’s Transformers universe, so far Legendary has done a fantastic job of embedding its mythical, god-like creatures in human history. “All those nuclear tests in the Pacific? Not tests – we were trying to kill it.” It being Godzilla.
Yes, Gojira was first awakened back in 1954, and later emerged from the deep in order to do battle with two skyscraping MUTOs (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Objects) in Gareth Edwards’ 2014 franchise-starter. And though Godzilla struggled to light up the box office in the way Legendary and Warner Bros. would’ve hoped, it’s now considered to be ground zero of the MonsterVerse, an interconnected body of films that recently welcomed Kong: Skull Island into its midst.
Those of you who stayed after the credits rolled on Jordan Vogt-Roberts Vietnam-era creature feature will know that the likes of Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah are all set to feature in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and now, Legendary has debuted a new MonsterVerse promo designed to shed light on the discovery of King Ghidorah, otherwise known as the “devil with three heads.”
2016: An extraordinary superspecies is discovered beneath the Antarctic ice. #KongSkullIsland pic.twitter.com/4puTeUSH2n
— Kong: Skull Island (@kongskullisland) July 12, 2017
Thanks to a partnership with Toho Studios, Ghidorah is just one of three famous Godzilla villains on the roll call for King of the Monsters – the other two being Rodan and the super-sized moth known as Mothra.
The new story follows the heroic efforts of the crypto-zoological agency Monarch as its members face off against a battery of god-sized monsters, including the mighty Godzilla, who collides with Mothra, Rodan, and his ultimate nemesis, the three-headed King Ghidorah.
When these ancient super-species—thought to be mere myths—rise again, they all vie for supremacy, leaving humanity’s very existence hanging in the balance.
On the ground level, King of the Monsters‘ human cast is similarly huge, and includes Millie Bobby Brown, Vera Farmiga, Kyle Chandler, Ken Watanabe, Randy Havens, former Game of Thrones actor Charles Dance, Sally Hawkins, Anthony Ramos, Aisha Hinds, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Thomas Middleditch, Bradley Whitford, and, more recently, Elizabeth Ludlow of The Walking Dead fame.
Gojira is expected to emerge from the deep to prove that he is, in fact, King of the Monsters when Michael Dougherty’s mighty creature feature crashes into theaters on March 22nd, 2019. Filming is already underway in Atlanta, while Legendary and Warner Bros. have also drawn up plans for Godzilla Vs. Kong, the crossover movie to end all crossover movies, for March of 2020.