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EXCLUSIVE: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire Director Adam Wingard Talks About Highly-Anticipated Monsterverse Sequel
In an exclusive conversation with Pinkvilla, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire director Adam Wingard spoke about teaming up Godzilla and Kong, the evolution of Godzilla, Mini-Kong and much more. Read on to know.
Adam Wingard's highly-anticipated upcoming monster film, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, a sequel to 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong, is all set to hit theatres this month. The fifth film in the MonsterVerse franchise will follow up the explosive showdown of Godzilla vs. Kong with an all-new adventure that will pit the almighty Kong and the fearsome Godzilla against a colossal undiscovered threat hidden within our world, challenging their very existence and that of our own. The film will delve further into the histories of these Titans and their origins, as well as the mysteries of Skull Island and beyond.
Helmed by Wingard once again, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is produced by Legendary Pictures and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film stars Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Dan Stevens, Kaylee Hottle, Alex Ferns and Fala Chen in leading roles. Ahead of the release of movie, Pinkvilla sat down for an exclusive chat with director Adam Wingard and learnt what lies ahead in the cinematic Monsterverse. Check out the exclusive conversation below.
Given their history, what was the thinking behind the teaming up of Godzilla and Kong?
Well, I think it really came from making the last movie. I remember watching the film—in that freshly post-pandemic environment, when things were shaping up and people were starting to go back to the theaters—and it was such an incredible feeling, because it had been over a year since I’d even been in a theater. Watching audiences react to the brief team-up of Godzilla and Kong at the end of 'Godzilla vs. Kong,' where they’re fighting against Mechagodzilla, it was just so exciting, because there was this catharsis in the air. You could tell it was delivering exactly what people wanted in that moment. And I just thought, "If we’re going to do another film, you can’t separate these guys again, at least not in the context of the Monsterverse."
And that was just a brief taste of what that team-up could be like. So I thought, "Let’s take it all the way." And I had a lot of influences, from buddy cop movies to another film, John Carpenter’s They Live. And I always loved how in that film, the best action scene in the movie is between two heroes. The villains aren’t anywhere in sight. It’s the scene with Roddy Piper and Keith David, where Roddy’s trying to get Keithto put the sunglasses on to reveal that the world’s controlled by aliens… it’s just two guys fighting for nearly eight minutes.And that was really influential to me, because it’s my second favorite film of all time.
But that’s when I realized, yes, we’re going to do the team-up. But, the fun of the team-up is going to be the adventure of how you get them there—in the last film, they work together, but it’s an uneasy truce. The status quo at the beginning of Godzilla x Kong is Godzilla’s on the surface and Kong’s in Hollow Earth, and they’re respecting each other’s domain and boundaries. But, hey, they’re still monsters, so their communication skills aren’t great. For them to work together, it’s going to be a process.
We get to know more about both Kong and Godzilla in this. What is Kong looking for at the start of the film?
Kong is in a better place, in terms of his environment, than he was in the last movie. Hollow Earth is much more in line with the world that he grew up in on Skull Island. It’s got that kind of prehistoric feel. Physically, that’s where he thrives. But emotionally, Kong is still lonely, and just like any person who has it all, there’s always something that they’re missing. And Kong is just a lonely ape there in Hollow Earth, and that’s where we find him. He’s thriving on one level, but he’s lonely on another.
You’ve said this film gives us your version of Godzilla. How is he evolving?
Well, he literally IS evolving. Without going into any details, I knew I wanted to give him an updated appearance for this film. I think that’s part of the fun of Godzilla as a character—to see him evolve into different iterations in different films. It’s always exciting to see the new approach to the spines on his back and all the little details here and there. Going into this, I knew I wanted to update Godzilla’s appearance, but it was important that it was motivated from a story perspective. And so the concept of Godzilla’s evolution was something that became not just important to this story, but it became Godzilla’s whole impetus. The whole story is him evolving.
Is there anything you can share about Mini-Kong or Suko?
Suko is one of the most exciting new characters in this movie. He’s a character that’s hard to talk about, because he needs to be experienced—and there are a lot of surprises in terms of his personality. He’s not as straightforward as I think he might seem. He’s a little bit more complicated. And in a lot of ways, his and Kong’s journey and the way their relationship develops is one of the driving forces for the plot.
And it was very exciting to do it, because they’re so character-driven. Both Kong and Suko are in fully animated sequences with no dialogue. Telling their story in this visual waywas one of the things that really drew me to this movie. It was very satisfying, because it really worked right away. One of the first sequences we animated for this film was one of their big journey scenes together. And it was fun to see and develop the characters in an animated sort of way.
What about developing the Scar King?
The Scar King is a really exciting villain, because he’s sort of the anti-Kong. He has all the main attributes that Kong has, but he is the evil version of him. And it was important to me in this movie that we still stay true to the history of Godzilla and Kong films, which are classically driven by the concepts of the evil that man does, evil versus nature, the development of nuclear weapons… and those kind of things that have a negative impacton the world. But instead of the humans being a driving force—as they usually are in terms of telling that story—I wanted to see if we could get the point across while still having a monster be the main villain. So what’s cool about the Scar King is that even though he isn’t human, his motivations are very human.
He’s an ape, or he’s similar to an ape in the sense that he can think, feel and conspire, those kinds of things. His motivations are very grounded in human motivations, like power and control. He’s this type of super dictator living in Hollow Earth. And just on a physical level, he’s a great match for Kong—he can do all the things Kong can do, but he is very agile. So Kong has to get clever in terms of the way that he even physically approaches him. And Scar King ends up being a really interesting villain that’s formidable to both Godzilla and Kong, which is why they have to team up to take them down.
What do you want audiences to experience? What do you want them to walk away with?
The obvious thing is that I want people to have a fun time watching this movie. This film is just a total thrill ride with a ton of action. It’s pretty nonstop. And so from that perspective, the obvious thing for me to say is that I want people to have fun with it. But also, to me, this is actually a monster character study, which is a crazy thing to say. But that’s what I also want people to get out of it—I want them to really get into the psyche and point of view of the monsters in a way that they’ve never done before. I didn’t want to make just another monster movie. I wanted to make one that stands on its own merits and is doing something new and unique. And that’s what I really want people to come away with—yes, have a fun time, but also really get into this new and unique experience… because you’re seeing a story that’s mostly visual and it’s taking you places you’ve never been.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is slated for release in theatres across India, in 3D and IMAX on March 29, 2024 in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. The film will also release in the US on the same date, two days after being released internationally on March 27, 2024.
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