We’ve heard some rumblings for a while, but now it’s official: Godzilla and King Kong are going to lay the smackdown on each other on the big screen. What’s more, two of cinema’s most iconic monsters are going to get their own cinematic universe on the lead up to the titanic match-up. Legendary Pictures have announced they are teaming up with Warner Bros. with a trio of interconnected movies that will sow the seeds for their eventual meeting. First up will be 2017’s Kong: Skull Island from director Jordan Vogt-Roberts. That will be followed by Gareth Edward’s Godzilla 2 in 2018, and then it will be all out city destroying war in 2020 with Godzilla vs. Kong (good, it seems Warner Bros. has learned from Batman v Superman).
This news comes after months of speculation following Legendary moving Skull Island from Universal to Warner Bros, who owns the distribution rights to Godzilla. Legendary and Warner had already parted ways in 2014, but the prospect of a shared universe for Kong and Godzilla proved to be enough for the two to work together again. Not much is known about how the two monsters will come together, but Monarch, the human organisation who discovered Godzilla in the 2014 movie, is said to play a big part across all three films. And with Legendary getting the rights to Toho’s extensive cast of monsters, from Mothra to Rodan, we’re promised plenty of monster action before the big two meet up.
There is no word on a cast or director, but any of Kong: Skull Island’s cast, including Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Brie Larson, and John Goodman, could conceivably turn up. And as for a director, no matter what you thought of his handling of the Godzilla reboot, Gareth Edward’s does some like the logical choice to handle both him and King Kong, doesn’t he?
