The first Godzilla movie came out in 1954, and the first King Kong movie came out in 1933. Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) is the 35th film in the Godzilla franchise, and Kong: Skull Island (2017) is the 11th film inspired by King Kong. Godzilla vs. Kong is to be released in March of this year and will become the 36th and 12th film of the respective franchises.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters, follows the 2014 film Godzilla, which is the first film in Legendary’s MonsterVerse franchise. The project was intended as a reboot of the 1954 original, and actually started back in 2004 as a short film, but in 2009 began to be redeveloped as a feature-length project. The film was reasonably well-received, and thus allowed for Kong: Skull Island, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and now Godzilla vs. Kong all to be made.
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In all of the films, the monsters are seen as an ancient superspecies. They are repeatedly referred to as the true owners of the Earth, and humans simply happen to exist alongside them. In the most recent film, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Godzilla battles Monster Zero, severing one of the monster’s three heads. The head regrows, and later it is revealed that Monster Zero was actually King Ghidorah, an ancient alien creature. In a post-credits scene, Alan Jonah, the leader of an eco-terrorist group seeking to restore what they believe to be the natural order of the Earth, buys the head from the individuals who recovered it.
As Godzilla vs. Kong gets closer to its release date, fans are theorizing as to how the presence of this head will affect the upcoming film’s plot. The release of the latest trailer has done a lot to foster various ideas. Many seem to think that the Godzilla in the trailers is not actually Godzilla, but a man-made mecha Godzilla wearing a synthetic suit. Mechagodzilla was a character in an earlier Godzilla film from 1974, Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla. However, in this film, Mechagodzilla is an alien creature, not a robot made by humans. In the end, Godzilla teams up with King Caesar, another creature from the Godzilla franchise, to defeat the Mechagodzilla.
Fans are guessing that if this Godzilla is a mecha, then the synthetic suit that the robot wears was potentially grown from the severed Ghidorah head acquired in the previous film. It seems as though there was already a Godzilla skeleton, and together with the head, it could be used to make the Mechagodzilla. Unlike the 1974 version, it seems that this mecha would be controlled by humans.
More ideas that further this theory are that Godzilla, in these recent films, has been portrayed primarily as a protector and savior of the Earth and the human race. Whereas in this new trailer, Godzilla is causing destruction and killing for seemingly no reason. A character even says: “Something must be provoking [Godzilla]’’, as he isn’t acting how he normally would. Also, in the background of a different shot, a screen with the text ‘Battery Systems: Maximum Charge’ is visible next to an image of a Godzilla exoskeleton.
So, from this, one theory is that Kong will be fighting the Mechagodzilla the entire film, and perhaps at the end, it will be revealed that it was never actually the real Godzilla. Fans have also said that in this recent trailer, Godzilla has a slightly different appearance than normal, for example, he looks smaller than he has been in the two recent films. From this, springs another theory, that the Mechagodzilla is smaller than the normal Godzilla. Subsequently, he will be easily defeated by Kong. However, because the Mechagodzilla was generated from the severed head of King Ghidorah, he will then regenerate into a Mecha-Ghidorah. At which point, Kong may not be powerful enough to defeat him, having just defeated the Mechagodzilla, so perhaps at this point the real Godzilla will appear so the two can team up against the Mecha-Ghidorah.
At another point in the trailer, a character states that “Kong bows to no one.” This word choice seems to suggest that in this film Kong will bow to someone, whether it be in defeat to the Mecha-Ghidorah or to Godzilla himself, or a bow of respect as the other monsters bow to Godzilla at the end of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, after he defeats Ghidorah. Some theorize that King Kong is referred to as Kong throughout the films because he has not earned the ‘King’ status in the way that King Ghidorah or Godzilla has, and perhaps in this upcoming film, he might reach that level. In actuality, the reason he is called Kong is due to copyright issues. Universal Studios owns the merchandising rights to King Kong, so in theory, anyone can make a King Kong movie, but if they wanted to sell any sort of merch or do any type of publicity or marketing, it would need to be approved and executed by Universal Studios. The title Kong allows for Legendary to avoid this. Thus, it seems unlikely that Kong will be referred to explicitly as ‘King Kong’ at any point in the upcoming film.
There was an urban legend that in the original King Kong vs. Godzilla film from 1962, the winner was dependent on where the film was screened. In the United States, at the end, the winner was King Kong, and in Japan, the winner was Godzilla. This idea was able to proliferate because the Japanese version of the film couldn’t be released in the United States as a result of various legal issues. However, in actuality, at the end of both films, Kong wins as Godzilla is nowhere to be seen, apparently defeated.
It seems unlikely that this new iteration of the film would have the same ending, especially considering how valid and plausible many of the fan theories appear to be. Although, it is still impossible to say definitively what the plot of Godzilla vs. Kong will be. And considering how many different monsters and villains there have been in the Godzilla franchise, there is a lot that could potentially happen in the film that was not revealed by the most recent trailer.
Godzilla vs. Kong will be released in theatres and on HBO Max in the United States on March 31, 2021.
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Source: Reddit