Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment's MonsterVerse is already a big success, but their new cinematic universe will face its biggest test when it comes time for GODZILLA VS. KONG, when the two legendary monsters face off on the big-screen for the first time in decades. Quite a lot is riding on the success of the upcoming monster-mash, but Adam Wingard (DEATH NOTE) seems to be up to the challenge, telling ComingSoon that the first step to winning over the fans is to take the monsters seriously.
The Godzilla/Kong fanbase is very different. They’re just really excited that anybody is taking this stuff seriously. They can smell a fake from a mile away, so if your enthusiasm isn’t real then they’ll eat you alive. As soon as you can prove that your intentions are true to the source material, that’s all that matters, specifically if you’re dealing with big monsters. You really have to take them seriously, almost as people.
Both Godzilla and King Kong each come with decades of mythology behind them, more so in the case of Godzilla, whose franchise is quickly approaching thirty movies. Adam Wingard comments that Godzilla has "gone through so many iterations. He’s been a bad guy, he’s been a good guy, he’s been a conflicted guy. There’s so many different things you can do with it, but it’s not drawing on one core story and its always been about the evolution of the character." The GODZILLA VS. KONG director recently visited the set of Michael Dougherty's GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS, which he says is looking "totally awesome" and "the vibe that they're going for is great." As cool as the concept of two giant monsters trading blows is, at the end of the day, Wingard says that you can't ignore the dark origins of the characters.
It’s a cool tradition to jump into, but it’s also one of those things where at a certain point you have to take it very seriously. Even though these are big, wild monster movies the origin of that is really from World War II and Hiroshima. If you watch that first film it’s really a sad movie. It’s a really depressing exploration of that, so you always have to remember at the end of the day the reason you’re here is because a major catastrophe took place. There’s this underlying darkness under it all, but at the end of the day it is for kids as well. Its evolved into this whole other thing that means so many things to different people.
GODZILLA VS. KONG will hit theaters on May 22, 2020, but out next MonsterVerse flick will be GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS on March 22, 2019.