Adam Wingard’s Godzilla vs. Kong will have Godzilla characters, rugged Kong

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Director Mike Dougherty is still in production on his sequel the 2014 GODZILLA film that was directed by Gareth Edwards, but YOU'RE NEXT / THE GUEST / DEATH NOTE helmer Adam Wingard is already hard at work on the follow-up to Dougherty's film, which will see Godzilla clashing with the version of King Kong that was introduced in KONG: SKULL ISLAND.

The MonsterVerse that Legendary Entertainment is crafting around Godzilla and Kong has a timeline that goes back a long time, with the scientific organization Monarch being founded in 1946, Godzilla being active around the time of World War II, and SKULL ISLAND being set in 1973. If the filmmakers wanted, the GODZILLA VS. KONG film could be set at some point in the past, although that would be limiting to the story – somehow the public would still have to be unaware of these giant creatures by the end of the film.

That's not a problem Wingard is going to have to deal with, though. Speaking with SlashFilm, the director revealed that his film will be set in the present and will have strong ties to Dougherty's GODZILLA 2 (not the official title). This means that Kong will have aged nearly fifty years between the events of SKULL ISLAND and GODZILLA VS. KONG: 

Is Godzilla vs. Kong still in the ‘70s in continuity with Skull Island?

No, ours is more in continuity with the sequel to Godzilla right now. They’re doing Godzilla 2 with Mike Dougherty directing, so our film is in present day. We have a couple characters from Godzilla 2 in ours, but it’ll be interesting to see how Kong has fared over the years. You see him in that film and he’s just constantly under attack. Things are going wrong and there’s probably been lots of human intervention since then. It’ll be interesting to see a more rugged, a bit more aged Kong in this film.

I'm looking forward to meeting this "more rugged" Kong, and to finding out which GODZILLA characters will be coming back for VS. KONG. Will it be the Monarch representatives played by Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins, or might the characters played by Millie Bobby Brown, Vera Farmiga, and Kyle Chandler be making a return? Or will it be someone else?

We'll have to wait a while to find out, as the GODZILLA sequel won't be in theatres until March 22, 2019. Wingard's GODZILLA VS. KONG will be out the following year, having been scheduled for a May 22, 2020 release.