The first trailer for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire premiered at Comic-Con Xperience (CCXP) over the weekend, and beyond exciting everyone anticipating this new MonsterVerse film, it reveals quite a bit about the plot. But, don’t take our word for it; see for yourself before you read on.
The trailer confirms speculation that GxK has a Son of Kong angle at the heart of Kong’s arc, that there is an undiscovered tribe of Kong’s species, and that there would be power-ups for the two titular Titans. Godzilla is energized with a red glow and Kong sports some sort of bionic fist as they run into battle.
Further information is needed to shed light on the mysteries behind these details, which we won’t get until we see the movie. However, its director Adam Wingard is opening up about what everybody can expect when we finally do. Right off the bat, he revealed to IGN that one of the fans’ wishes would be granted.
“So much of the film is entirely animated CG shots; so much of it is just pure imagination,” he said. “We have some sequences going up to about eight minutes long, where it’s just the monsters doing their thing, and so the movie really allows the monsters to tell their own narrative in a visual, nonverbal way.”
So, look forward to more exposure for the monsters, especially MV exclusives ‘Titanus Doug’ and the shadowy Scar King. Doug was notoriously given his name, which Wingard says is now canon, by fans who embraced him right away after his short appearance in the Hollow Earth.
“He’s like a little bulldog sort of,” the director jokes. “It’s a character I think people have ownership of just because they kind of made him viral in a MonsterVerse sort of way.”
Wingard moved on to discussing the “devilish, Kong-type character,” serving as the villain. “We wanted to come up with an antagonist that would both be a match for Kong and Godzilla, and that’s really hard to do,” he said. “There’s a lot more to this character and how he’s a threat, and that’s going to be something that’s going to be fun to kind of dole out.”
To deal with this threat, there was only one way to go, meaning there’s no scenario right now where Godzilla and Kong fight again.
“As soon as the [last] movie came out and the audiences started to see it, I was like, ‘You just can’t separate these two guys again,'” Wingard explained. “It’s too exciting having them in one movie. And now, the next one has to be about the continuation of that relationship, which is going to be the team-up.”
With all of its new Titans and surprises, the collaboration of the ages, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is in theaters on April 12, 2024.