Godzilla: King of the Monsters might not have been a critical and commercial success on the same level as its 2014 predecessor, but the movie nonetheless delivered enough city-leveling destruction to send the fans home happy, with the latest entry in Legendary Pictures’ MonsterVerse earning over $385 million at the box office, bringing the franchise’s total haul up to almost $1.5 billion with Godzilla vs. Kong scheduled to hit theaters next March.
Director Michael Dougherty is clearly a massive fan of the title character, and King of the Monsters is packed full of references to the extended Godzilla mythology, as well as heavily featuring classic Toho creations Mothra, Rodan and King Ghidora. However, the filmmaker admitted in a recent interview that he would have included more of the franchise’s rogues gallery if he could have afforded to.
“Originally, I hoped to use other monsters from the Toho-verse, like Anguirus, Gigan or Biollante, but every single Toho monster comes with a price tag – something we didn’t have the budget for. So instead of moping about it, I decided to embrace the opportunity and add new Titans to the gallery.”
It seems strange to hear that there wasn’t enough money to get the rights to include these characters when you consider that Godzilla: King of the Monsters reportedly cost $200 million to produce, but then again, the movie is packed wall-to-wall with expensive visual effects work, particularly when the massive kaiju are battling each other and laying waste to their surroundings. Dougherty simply overcame the obstacle by creating some brand new monsters of his own, including the mammoth-like Behemoth that quickly became a fan favorite.
While it remains to be seen if Godzilla will receive another standalone solo outing, King of the Monsters stars Millie Bobby Brown and Kyle Chandler are set to feature in director Adam Wingard’s currently-shooting Godzilla vs. Kong alongside Alexander Skarsgard, Rebecca Hall and Brian Tyree Henry. Look for it to hit theaters on March 13th, 2020.