Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire managed to replicate Godzilla vs. Kong’s success last year with a $571 million haul on a well-adjusted $135 million budget. It also convinced most moviegoers, who expressed direct opposition to the critical reception. Needless to say, a new huge movie was fast-tracked at Legendary and Warner Bros. shortly after its release. Now, it’s already assembling an all-star cast.
Grant Sputore (I Am Mother) boarded the project on June, and word is that this new installment will put some of the spotlight back on the humans, which hasn’t worked out too well in the past. However, with Toho’s Godzilla Minus One crushing it in 2023 and into 2024 as well as the Apple TV+ MonsterVerse series Monarch landing a critical hit by putting human drama front and center, maybe audiences are ready for a bit more meat on those characters’ bones. Honestly, it’ll all come down to Dave Callaham’s (Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse) script.
Via Deadline, Jack O’Connell (Unbroken, Lady Chatterley’s Lover) has been revealed as the latest addition to a cast which had already nabbed Kaitlyn Dever (The Last of Us season 2) as one of the leads and Godzilla x Kong vet (both veteran and veterinarian) Dan Stevens, who joined the previous installment to reunite with director Adam Wingard and co-writer Simon Barrett following The Guest (2014); he seems to be happy enough with the role and paycheck to stick around for more.
Plot details are being kept hidden away deep in the Hollow Earth, but (spoilers ahead for Godzilla x Kong) chances are we’ll reunite with Kong lording (finally as a King) over members of his species and with newfound kaiju allies. Meanwhile, Godzilla should still be keeping threats at bay on the surface… and destroying countless towns and cities in the process. Warner and Legendary have described the threequel as an ‘event film’ in the vein of the GvK and GxK, so expect yet another big crossover rumble.
We’ll be learning more about the cast in the coming weeks and months (we doubt Stevens will be the only returning face), as the movie is targeting a 2025 production start despite its faraway March 26, 2027, release date. Like them or not, Legendary appears to be putting proper care into these.
