It’s little secret that Legendary Entertainment and Warner Bros are cooking up what’s being called the “MonsterVerse”, a cinematic universe of films grounded in the world of two iconic film characters. We last saw the first of these back in 2014. That’s when Gareth Edwards – who went on to make Star Wars: Rogue One – put together a big, crashing reboot of Godzilla. Off the back of the success of that, Kong: Skull Island got its greenlight, and already a Godzilla sequel – Godzilla: King of the Monsters – has been inked in for 2019, before we get Godzilla vs. Kong in 2020.
Several take-aways here. First, the suggestion – unconfirmed – that Hiddleston and Larson’s characters will be back (why else would they be taken through Monarch’s top secret discoveries?). Second, that core species in this MonsterVerse are to include – courtesy of the cave drawings we see – the three-headed kaiju King Ghidorah, along with Mothra and Rodan, each iconic characters in their own right.
While the scene confirms elements of what’s coming up, it leaves behind just as many questions. Why is Monarch, for instance, being kept off the books? Godzilla’s roar is the very last sound we hear in Kong: Skull Island, a sound that suggests that he’s about to do battle with one of the Kaiju Monarch has discovered in the upcoming sequel. The title of the next film – Godzilla: King of Monsters – suggests that Godzilla might just prevail.
So far we’ve only had official confirmation of a further two films in the MonsterVerse, and inevitably Warner Bros will be monitoring the box office returns of its new release before booking a full return trip to Skull Island. But as we’ve already seen in Kong: Skull Island, there are creatures – and not small ones in some cases – that are part of that ecosystem that are waiting to meet the next batch of human explorers.
Monarch is going to need some good life cover policies for its employees…
