Thanks to the massive success enjoyed by the first two seasons of Stranger Things, Millie Bobby Brown was already a household name and two-time Emmy nominee before she’d even made her feature film debut, which came in blockbuster MonsterVerse sequel Godzilla: King of the Monsters.
The actress played a relatively small but pivotal role, caught in a tug of war between the vastly different ideologies of her divorced parents, portrayed by Kyle Chandler and Vera Farmiga. King of the Monsters was only released less than two years ago, but Brown has risen rapidly up the Hollywood ladder since then, with season 3 of Stranger Things cementing the show as a cultural phenomenon, while she produced and played the titular character in Netflix’s Enola Holmes, which went on to become one of the streamer’s biggest movies ever.
Therefore, it was hardly a surprise when Brown’s Madison Russell was revealed to have a significantly expanded part in Godzilla vs. Kong, even though director Adam Wingard had assembled an impressive ensemble of new and returning faces. In a recent interview, the 17 year-old offered some insight into her character and said that she gets to be a badass this time around.
“Five years have gone by and Madison has grown up. It’s definitely a coming-of-age story for her. Her storyline has definitely evolved greatly in the way she deals with things, her attitude towards life, how much more stronger of a person. Really trying to follow in her mother’s footsteps as well as strength wise she’s becoming more strong, more independent and understanding what she needs to do. Five years are gone by and she’s basically a badass.”
In King of the Monsters, Madison was a largely passive individual that spent most of her screen time reacting to the events unfolding around her, but the first trailer for Godzilla vs. Kong already made it abundantly clear that she’s going to take a much more hands-on role in the narrative this time and act as a major driving force behind the human side of the story, not to mention the fact that she’s been given second billing in the cast behind only Alexander Skarsgård.