The Godzilla-Kong Cinematic Universe

On Thursday October 14, 2015 Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. announced that they had joined forces to create a Godzilla-Kong Cinematic Universe with a crossover film in 2020 where Godzilla and King Kong battle each other for the first time since 1963. When I heard this news I lost it. The only other time I was this hyped was when Godzilla (2014) was about to come out in theaters. There had been lots of speculation going around about Godzilla having a rematch with Kong ever since the San Diego International Comic-Con 2014 where they announced they had obtained the film rights from Universal Studios to reboot the King Kong franchise with Kong: Skull Island (March 10, 2017). I was of course one of the many fans speculating that Godzilla and Kong would battle each other again. So what is Legendary and Warner Bros. plan? Would this be a successful venture for Legendary and Warner Bros.? How could this battle be done between the God of Kaiju and the King of Apes? Well let me give you my two cents on how and what is going on.

So what is Legendary and Warner Bros plan?

Like I stated earlier Legendary and Warner Bros. announced on October 14, 2015 that they are creating a Godzilla-Kong Cinematic Universe expanded with a trilogy of films starting with Kong: Skull Island. Godzilla (2014) was the start of the Cinematic Universe but it will be further expanded in Kong: Skull Island which started production on October 19, 2015. A little over a year after Kong: Skull Island we will be getting Godzilla 2 (6-8-2018) with Gareth Edwards returning to direct along with Max Borenstein to write the screenplay. Borenstein has worked on both Godzilla (2014) and Kong: Skull Island. With Godzilla 2 Legendary announced that TOHO Studios (the company who created Godzilla) had given them the film rights to the kaiju Mothra, Rodan, and Godzilla’s arch nemesis King Ghidorah. In 2020 we will see the two franchises meet up in a clash in the film Godzilla Vs. Kong. Below is the official press release for the start of the cinematic universe along with both Legendary’s and Warner Bros’ CEOs on the subject.

“All-powerful monsters become towering heroes for a new generation, revealing a mythology that brings together Godzilla and Legendary’s King Kong in an ecosystem of other giant super-species, both classic and new. Monarch, the human organization that uncovered Godzilla in the 2014 film, will expand their mission across multiple releases.”- Legendary’s description on the Godzilla Cinematic Universe.

“Audiences really responded to Godzilla. Today, I’m excited to reveal that film was only the beginning of an epic new entertainment universe. As a lifelong fan of these characters, I’ve always wanted to see the ultimate showdown, and today we’re pleased to be announcing that and more.” - Thomas Tull, CEO of Legendary Pictures.

"Working with our partners at Legendary, we enjoyed tremendous creative and commercial success with ‘Godzilla’. It's great to be able to revisit these characters and help create a franchise with so many creative possibilities for filmmakers. Fans love these big, globally iconic films and it doesn't get any bigger than this." said Kevin Tsujihara, Warner Bros CEO.

Below is a set photo from Kong: Skull Island

Would this be a successful venture for Legendary and Warner Bros.?

Would this be a successful venture for Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros.? In my opinion, yes I think it would be a very successful venture for both studios. Godzilla (2014) like what Thomas Tull and Kevin Tsujihara said, was met with fan and commercial success. Godzilla (2014) for the box office is ranked 3 in Sci-fi Remake, 1 in Remake-Asian, and 1 in Remake-Foreign Thrillers. It is also the highest grossing film of the franchise making $529,076,069 at the box office. Making half a billion with the first release to a franchise is pretty great. Peter Jackson’s King Kong (2005) made $550,517,357 at the box office and won three Oscars. For TOHO, King Kong Vs. Godzilla (1962) grossed $19,618,303 in 1962 and when adjusted to inflation it is roughly $153,771,112 making it TOHO’s highest grossing Godzilla film. So a film with 3 oscars and and three films grossing a combined total of $1,233,364,538! With more and more movies grossing over a billion dollars Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. are definitely making a smart move combining the two franchises again.

How could this battle be done between the God of Kaiju and the King of Apes?

So how could these two franchises come together to create this epic? Well here’s what I think they should do. First off it’s been confirmed by Legendary that the super secret scientific research group MONARCH that discovered Godzilla, will be in Kong: Skull Island linking it to the new Godzilla franchise. The big question everyone has is ‘How will Kong fight Godzilla? Godzilla’s huge compared to Kong!’. Yes, Godzilla is huge compared to Kong. Legendary’s Godzilla stands at 355. That’s roughly 14 times bigger than Kong’s usual height. Well here are a few ways they could do it. We all know that the new Kong movie takes place in the 1970’s meaning that this could be a juvenile Kong that they find. With Kong being a juvenile means that by the time Godzilla Vs. Kong comes around he could be full grown. John from the Youtube channel theFLICKpick stated that they could boost Kong up to 150 ft which is close to half of Godzilla’s height. Kong is a lot more mobile than Godzilla meaning he could jump from building to building throwing helicopters and other miscellaneous objects at Godzilla. Another way they make Kong big enough to fight Godzilla is have Godzilla defeat another kaiju at the beginning of the film and with the dead kaiju, have it’s body emit radiation from its encounter with Godzilla. Everyone knows Godzilla is a walking nuclear reactor so it would make sense that there would be radiation leftover from Godzilla’s visit. Now that there’s radiation on Skull Island it could mutate all the beasts making them closer to Godzilla’s height. Skull Island is also in the south pacific. With this knowledge of Skull Island being in the south pacific, we also know that their was nuclear testing there. To be more specific there was testing in Bikini Atoll where Godzilla was hit with a nuclear bomb. Skull Island could have fallout from the testing leading to all the creatures on the Island could mutate close to Godzilla’s height.

For the future of the G-KCU

Now that King Kong has been added to the Godzilla-Kong Cinematic Universe along with fellow Godzilla co-stars Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah what will happen to the rest of the franchise? Well in my opinion they should do an Avengers style Godzilla film, possibly a remake of Destroy All Monsters (1968). Gareth Edwards, director of Godzilla 1 and 2, said he is more than willing to make a sequel that uses the Monster Island idea from Destroy All Monsters, the Godzilla games of the 2000’s, and IDW’s Godzilla series. Another way to further expand the universe is get more rights from TOHO to make other kaiju movies like War of the Gargantuas (1966), The Space Amoeba (1970), Varan the Unbelievable (1958). Legendary and WB could also give Mothra and Rodan their own movies like they had in Japan. They could more movies for Kong like a remake of Son of Kong (1933). There’s the possibility of Legendary acquiring the rights to Gamera and all us kaiju fans could see Godzilla Vs. Gamera. We could also see Godzilla Vs. Zilla that would last longer than 30 seconds. Now obviously this is speculation from a die hard fan but the possibilities are endless Gojira!!!! As long as no Jaegers get thrown into the mix. Yeah I’m looking at you Pacific Rim. Stay away from Goji-sama!!!

#Godzilla #KingKong #Legendary