Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024) is a sequel to Godzilla vs. Kong (2021), and the fifth film in the MonsterVerse franchise.
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- Director Adam Wingard revealed the movie won’t have a dual storyline like the previous one did.
- Adam Wingard said, the Skar King almost represents an upscaled version of the worst parts of humanity, just as Kong represents some of the best parts of humanity.
- Godzilla’s new design here has purple/pink-colored plates akin to his MireGoji design from Godzilla 2000 (1999) and Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000).
- The change in color for Godzilla’s atomic breath going from light blue to a reddish tint, signifying a total boost in power, is identical to the Heisei incarnation having the far more destructive Red Spiral Ray as the sheer strength of his attack is more powerful than his default blue-colored atomic breath.
- Mini-Kong’s name was revealed on toy lines as “Suko” which likely carries significant meaning, as when written phonetically in Japanese, it can be broken down into two characters that ultimately mean, “Essential Child.” Interestingly, Suko is typically a female name in Japanese. Suko, perhaps coincidentally, is a Filipino word for “surrender.”
- The film releases in 2024 exactly 10 years after the release of Godzilla, the film that launched the entire franchise. Likewise 2024 marks the 70th anniversary of the Godzilla franchise overall.
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- For Godzilla and Kong’s new looks, Adam Wingard revealed: “Very specifically in the last film, I wanted Godzilla to have a continuity, to look the way that he had in ‘King of the Monsters’ and the 2014 ‘Godzilla.’ But then I didn’t get a chance at doing my version of Godzilla. So now I wanted to do different things with the spines and try different colors. I didn’t want it to just be random; it’s part of the story. And similarly, with Kong, I wanted to give him some sort of new look as well. We grew his beard out, and gave him a little bit more grey hair and stuff.”
- Before release, Takashi Yamazaki, the writer and director of the acclaimed Godzilla Minus One (2023), got to watch the film early and promoted it on social media stating, “I was able to watch the big movie early! It is super fun and gorgeous. Be sure to watch it on the big screen.”
- The first MonsterVerse film to be shot entirely in IMAX 1.90:1 aspect ratio.
- Kong’s glove is called The B.E.A.S.T which stands for, Bio Enhanced Anatomech Seismic Thunder.
- Much like with Godzilla vs. Kong, in November 2023 photos of the toyline merchandise showing Godzilla’s new design were revealed ahead of schedule — with fans having mixed opinions about how skinny it looked. While some were suspicious of its legitimacy, on December 2nd an Empire magazine article was issued containing photos that reinforced its legitimacy, with it being confirmed as true the same day when official art of the revamped design was revealed on Legendary’s merch store and the official trailer released.
- After the trailer’s release, some fans lamented that the official design in the movie has pink dorsal plates–unlike the toy, which has red dorsal plates.
- Adam Wingard revealed Lethal Weapon (1987), was an inspiration for the film.
- This marks the fourth appearance of Godzilla in the MonsterVerse, after Godzilla (2014), Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), and Godzilla vs. Kong (2021). Although he didn’t appear in Kong: Skull Island (2017), his roar was heard in the end credits.
- While Shimo’s exact age is unknown, the fact that she’s been referred to in some sources as “The First Titan”, indicating her to be older than any other Titan, puts her here by default.
- According to Adam Wingard the glove Kong is wearing, it’s somewhat insinuated that’s Apex technology.
- The trailer reveals Godzilla bursting out of an iceberg, just as he did in King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962).
- Suko is the third juvenile ape to appear in a film with Kong, after Kiko in Son of Kong (1933) and Baby Kong in King Kong Lives (1986).
- An image of the cave painting depicting Shimo in Call of Duty appeared as part of the advertised placeholder representation for digital copies of the Monsterverse graphic novel Godzilla x Kong: The Hunted, hinting at the monsters existence in the film before being officially announced.
- It was filmed under the working title: “Son of Kong.”
- An initial design of Shimo was featured in a leaked photo from an early screen testing of the film, which showed Shimo’s head sporting a terrapin style before the final design feature a different head.
- Marks the third appearance of Kong in the MonsterVerse, after Kong: Skull Island (2017), and Godzilla vs. Kong (2021).
- The pose Kong strikes while roaring with the B.E.A.S.T. Glove, resembles cover art for the fighting game Primal Rage (1994).
- The first Godzilla movie to feature an “x” in it’s native title since Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003), and the first ever to feature it in an English title. As in the Japanese title of Godzilla: Tokyo SOS, the “x” is silent.
- A lot of fans refer to Shimo as female, despite what little information there is indicating that he’s male (although the film’s creature designer Jared Krichevsky also said he had no problem with people referring to Shimo as female). Whether Shimo is male or female became a topic of heated debate amongst the fandom when Amazon and Target’s pages for the “Shimo with Frost Bite Blast” used female pronouns while other retailers use male pronouns. Krichevsky initially stated that either option works but later referred to Shimo using male pronouns, which only intensified the debate.
- Eventually it was clarified that Shimo had originally been intended to be male, but had been changed to be female later in development.
- The film’s toyline also spoiled the design for Shimo, a reptilian kaiju somewhat similar to Godzilla but with white scales, blue dorsal plates and horns, and ice-based powers, revealing it to be the same mystery Titan teased in the “Operation Monarch” event for Call of Duty: Warzone.
- For Godzilla’s pink form, Adam Wingard admitted there was a bit of personal preference in there too. “With that said, pink is my favourite colour,” he laughed. “Our editorial that we edit the movie in, it was covered with pink lights, and generally I usually have pink fairy lights in any room that I’m in.”
- Adam Wingard is the first Monsterverse director to return for a second film, having previously helmed Godzilla vs Kong (2021).
- While not entirely negative, most fans have shown disappointment and were underwhelmed for Tom Holkenborg’s score, released a week before the film. The criticism stems from the many synth-heavy tracks, especially the theme for Mothra, which pales in comparison to Bear McCreary’s reinterpretation of the original Yûji Koseki score. This was also the case for the Godzilla theme. Director Wingard mention that they intentionally did not use any of the classic themes due to being a different version. However, many fans felt that Holkenborg’s themes sounded like “bootleg” versions of the classic themes, likely done to avoid paying for the rights to use the original music.
- For the color visuals Adam Wingard revealed: “Whenever I was talking to the visual artists, what I told them was, ‘I want the color palette of this film to resemble the experience of what it was like to walk down a toy aisle in the 1980s when you had ThunderCats, G.I. Joe, and Transformers.’ There was just this orgasmic feeling. So many colors and textures. That’s what I wanted to bring to this movie. This new, heightened reality. I wanted to find out: can you take that over-the-top toy-aisle experience, but then find a way to ground that into a reality?”
- Dan Stevens and Adam Wingard will reunite for the first time since The Guest (2014).
- Shimo is a Japanese word meaning “frost” or “gray hair.” The name also means “hole” or “abyss” in Swahili. The name was first revealed on a Jada Toys Metalfigs figure at the 2023 Singapore Comic-Con.
- Adam Wingard revealed that Godzilla will have “many forms” in the movie.
- Ever since the leaked toyline and images from the movie’s screen testing about Shimo came out, a lot of fans started to draw her, trying to guess her canon appearance.
- The first Monsterverse film, made without the involvement of screenwriter Max Borenstein.
- The fight between Kong and Skar King in the trailer was inspired by a scene in the film Emperor of the North Pole (1973), where the characters A-No.-1 and Shack fight with a fire axe and chains, respectively.
- Water bottles were given to members of the film’s production crew, mentioning a “Hollow Earth Advance Team”,: potentially a reference to the Humanitarian Environmental Analysis Team (H.E.A.T.) from Godzilla: The Series (1998).
- The time between the domestic releases of this film on March 29th 2024, and Godzilla Minus One (2023) released in Japan on November 3rd 2023, will be the shortest between two Godzilla movies in franchise history, at 147 days.
- “Skar” is a Scottish dialect word, for “wild”.
- On February 21st 2024, 50 images from a test screening of the movie where leaked onto social media, revealing many details of the plot. This was followed by claims that the entire movie had been leaked online.
- Due to the image of Shimo’s leaked design, many fans complained about its design, saying that it looked like a “moaning turtle” giving rise to a wide variety of memes.
- Due to the revelation of Shimo’s ice abilities, it is believed that she is the main cause of King Ghidorah’s freezing in Antarctica, however the official limited access guide to “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” it is speculated that this could be false.
- According to director, Adam Wingard, he views Kong and not Godzilla, as the true main character of the Monsterverse. While a fan of Godzilla, Wingard admitted Kong is easier to relate to stating, “You can’t be as close to Godzilla as you can Kong.”
- According to director, Adam Wingard, another influence on the film was 80’s toy commercials.
- In the trailer, Bernie refers to Suko as a “mini-Kong”, director Adam Wingard also offered the nickname “Baby Kong” during IGN Fan Fest 2024, misquoting the line from the trailer.
- This isn’t the first time the iconic Christ the Redeemer Statue has appeared in a Godzilla project, it previously showed up in volume 3 of Godzilla In Hell where it was destroyed in a flashback by SpaceGodzilla.
- Skar King will be the first main Monsterverse antagonist in a film, to be a definitive mammal.
- Despite him appearing to be younger than Kong was in Kong: Skull Island (2017), Suko is at least 45 feet taller than Kong was in that movie.
- Director Adam Wingard told Digital Spy that while “there could be a place for her in the future”, Madison didn’t quite fit into this story he wanted to tell.
- Rebecca Hall and Dan Stevens previously starred together in Permission (2017).
- After watching the trailer for Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus One (2023), Adam Wingard and visual effects supervisor Alessandro Ongaro decided to pay tribute to that film by incorporating a close-up of Godzilla’s foot during the sequence where the monster is rampaging in Rome.
- Dan Stevens played the Beast in Beauty and The Beast (2017), and stars in this movie with two of cinemas biggest “Beasts”.
- Director Adam Wingard expressed interest in making a third film featuring both Godzilla and Kong, but noted that “it just depends on how [Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire] does and how things kind of shape out”.
- Rebecca Hall was relished the opportunity to work with both actors Brian Tyree Henry and Dan Stevens She said: “I didn’t get to work with Brian on the first one, but I do on this one and that, to me, was a complete thrill because I love him, I love this work. Dan’s a really old friend and I was happy to work with him again too. I’ve known him for like 20 years and so it felt like a family. It felt silly and fun and I think that translate into what you see.”
- Rebecca Hall explained why returning to the sequel was “even more fun”. “There was just a sense of ease honestly coming back,” she said. “It’s a huge endorsement for an actor to get asked back to play again in something like this. The part was fun the first time, but even more fun this time because she’s got more authority which is nice for a lady character, among other things, in one of these movies. It’s great.”
- Kaylee Hottle expressed her satisfaction at seeing deaf representation in the film. As a deaf actress herself, Kaylee’s portrayal of Jia resonates deeply with audiences, showcasing the importance of inclusivity and diversity in cinema.
- Director Adam Wingard was determined to minimise the human involvement in the picture so the appropriate focus was placed on the two towering beasts. Adam told The Hollywood Reporter: “In the development phase, my motto was, ‘Simplicity is key.’ And so I knew that if we created a smaller cast, we could create a more intimate story. “We can still spend time with [the human characters], and at the same time, we can spend more time with the monsters and not shortchange one or the other.”
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