Kaiju including Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah make their Comic-Con debut.
When we left off with Godzilla in his 2014 film reboot, the world’s most famous movie monster had just saved the city of San Francisco from a pair of terrifying creatures before disappearing back into the sea. Now, in the trailer for Godzilla: King of the Monsters, which dropped at Comic-Con earlier today, Godzilla returns to save the world, and he’s not alone.
Marner Brother’s last Godzilla movie proved at the box office that audiences can love monster movies as much as the superhero franchises that usually dominate the pop culture sphere. There is a unique thrill to watching colossal creatures duke it out over city skylines that even the flashiest Marvel movie can’t quite recreate. From the looks of this new trailer, audiences should prepare to experience that thrill once again.
The sequel, helmed by Krampus director Michael Dougherty, introduces us to Dr. Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga) an agent of Monarch Sciences, the monster hunting organization introduced in Kong: Skull Island, Legendary’s other big MonsterVerse property.
Russell is convinced that the only way to undo humanity’s pending extinction is to awaken the ‘titans’ that have long lied sleeping in the earth. She and her team set out to find Godzilla and several other Kaiju, and from the looks of the trailer they find more than what they bargained for. Monster aficionado Millie Bobby Brown will also star in the sequel as Russell’s daughter. Additional cast members include Sally Hawkins, Kyle Chandler, and Ken Watanabe. You can watch the new trailer (and all of the monster madness within it) below:
Legendary and Warner Brothers have long been working on creating a shared cinematic universe for movie monsters to compete with both the Marvel and DC franchises. 2014’s Godzilla and 2017’s Kong: Skull Island laid the groundwork for the cinematic world. Now Godzilla: King of the Monsters looks to be introducing the rules for how the Monsterverse will actually work. Godzilla and his brethren will undergo the transition from misunderstood menaces to outright heroes, with Farmiga playing the role of Nick Fury by assembling a team of monster Avengers.
Since Legendary and Warner Brother’s are attempting to mash their monster movies into one shared universe, it’s no surprise that old favorites from the original Godzilla franchise are making their Hollywood debut in the upcoming sequel. Kaiju that resemble Mothra, Rodan and King Ghidorah all receive cameos in the upcoming trailer. If that doesn’t sound like enough monsters to you, you’ll be happy to know that director Michael Dougherty hinted in today’s Comic-Con panel that “there might be more surprises to come.”
While King Ghidorah is typically a Godzilla villain, Mothra and Rodan have appeared in prior films as both friends and foes of the legendary lizard, and it remains to be seen which Kaiju will join Godzilla and which will turn against him in the upcoming film.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters looks set to deliver some massive monster battles, fill in some of our unanswered questions from the last movie, and set us up for the big MonsterVerse showdown, Godzilla vs. Kong. That film, which will officially unite the MonsterVerse, is set for a 2020 release. What are the chances that Godzilla and King Kong’s mothers’ will both be named Martha?