After the success of the MCU, other studios rushed to get their own cinematic universes into production. Many of them fizzled out, but Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures’ MonsterVerse seems to be one of the few success stories.
Godzilla had its flaws, but at least reestablished the titular creature as a majestic and awesomely powerful beast, and Kong: Skull Island added a whole bunch of texture, backstory and John Goodman to the franchise. Now, in about a month, we’re set to see the most insanely gigantic monster showdown we’ve witnessed in years in Godzilla: King of the Monsters.
The awesome trailers have already teased the arrival of many classic Toho monsters, showing us Rodan, Ghidorah, Mothra and, of course, the Big G himself. The word is that we’ll see Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra teaming up to take down King Ghidorah in what seems destined to be an absolutely awe-inspiring clash of the titans. But it appears as if this quartet won’t be the only monsters in town.
Director Michael Dougherty made an appearance at the excellently named Monsterpalooza festival over the weekend where he teased some original surprises. When asked if there’d be other kaiju in the film, he said:
“Yes. Not other Toho licensed creatures, but some original new ones. We’ve expanded the ecosystem a little bit.”
Interesting stuff. Legendary’s takes on the classic Toho monsters seem very impressive from the trailers, so I can’t wait to see what they’ve cooked up. Then again, any original kaiju created for these movies will have a real uphill battle when it comes to winning the audience’s affections.
After all, the four stars of the film have been around for half a century and have a huge amount of fan love, so I’d bet any new creations will end up as monster fodder to show what these guys can do when they’re mad. In any case, we’ll see what the team has in store for us when Godzilla: King of the Monsters crashes into theaters next month.