It felt like the day would never come, but the Godzilla vs Kong trailer is finally here. It’s pretty insane that a movie that’s less than two months away is only just now releasing its first trailer, but then again, this epic monster mash’s journey to the screen has been anything but normal. Intended as a $200 million-plus tentpole, Adam Wingard's (The Guest) film saw its release date postponed a few times due to COVID-19, and was recently bumped up to a March 26th debut on both HBO Max and theatres. Of course, this is due to WB’s new pledge to simultaneously release all their 2021 films via their new streaming service in the wake of the ongoing pandemic with theaters unlikely to be re-opened anytime soon.
The film is a direct sequel to both Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Kong seems to more-or-less be the movie’s good guy. In it, he seems to have a paternal relationship with a young girl, who’s threatened when Godzilla starts going crazy and blowing sh*t up. Enter King of the Monsters good guys Millie Bobby Brown and Kyle Chandler, who insist Godzilla isn’t really bad and being controlled by some sinister force. In addition to Brown and Chandler, the film has a whole slew of new human leads, including Eiza González, Jessica Henwick, Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, and Alexander Skarsgard.
Overall, this looks like a total popcorn-chomping blast. It’s the kind of tentpole movie I think we all really need nowadays, as we really haven’t gotten a four-quadrant movie like this since WW84 (a touch underwhelming I daresay), and before that Tenet (sue me – I liked it!). While Godzilla: King of the Monsters didn’t perform all that well at the box office, I found it pretty enjoyable, and I liked Kong: Skull Island even more so I’m psyched to see what chaos Wingard brings to the Monsterverse.
The film debuts simultaneously on HBO Max and theatres on March 26th. Internationally it’s expected to hit theatres around the same time, although similar to WW84, it will likely hit PVOD at the same time it hits the stateside streamer.