We talked at length about Legendary’s rumored “Kaiju Cinematic Universe” last month, and now, those plans have finally been made 100% official.
Remind me again, what’s going on here?
In short, Legendary and WB are partnering to bring both Godzilla and King Kong under the same banner, and from here on out, their versions of these monsters will exist in the same universe.
As we speculated, the link between these two kaiju movies (and future ones as well most likely) will be Monarch, the organization in Godzilla that was studying the titular monster. Presumably, an early version of Monarch will also appear in Kong: Skull Island.
What’s the release plan for these movies?
First off will be Kong: Skull Island, which will introduce a new version of King Kong to this cinematic universe. It won’t have any ties to the most recent Peter Jackson remake, but it will pay homage in some way to the original film. That one is out in 2017.
Then in 2018 will be a sequel to Godzilla. This will be completely canon with the 2014 movie directed by Gareth Edwards, and as such, that first one could be considered to be the “Iron Man” of this series.
Finally, in 2020, the two creatures will meet for Godzilla vs. Kong, kaiju-vengers basically.
Are there any plans for more movies set in this world?
There’s nothing concrete that’s been announced, but Legendary’s announcement does mention that they’re placing Godzilla and Kong into an, “ecosystem of other giant super-species, both classic and new.”
They also specifically reference the fact that Legendary owns the rights to classic Toho characters such as “Rodan, Mothra, and King Ghidorah,” paving the way for these other famous kaiju to enter the story.
All of this likely hinges on whether or not Skull Island and Godzilla 2 can deliver of course. The fact that Legendary was ready to officially announce a crossover though seems to imply quite a bit of confidence in the project.
We’ll keep you posted, and put up an FAQ once we know more.
