Legendary’s Monsterverse has been steadily persisting since 2014 and saw its first big titanic crossover in the form of 2021's Godzilla vs. Kong. Instead of splitting the titular monsters back off again so they can do their own separate things for a bit, they’re reuniting once more—this time as allies rather than duking it out with one another.
Picking up sometime after the last movie, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire sees the pair banding together to fight against a currently unnamed new ape that’s threatening to wipe out humanity. In the years since we last saw them in the present day, both Godzilla and Kong have changed: the former has reached a new, pink-ish form, while Kong has settled nicely into his role as the axe-wielding ruler of the Hollow Earth and even found himself a son.
Ahead of the New Empire trailer, director Adam Wingard (who previously helmed the first GvK) told IGN about leaning into the “pure imagination” of the premise and letting the monsters feel more like characters rather than just set pieces for the humans to react to. There’ll be fairly extensive sequences (of around eight minutes overall) where they’re “just doing they’re own thing” when they’re not trying to smash buildings or one another’s face in. More than the previous movies, said Wingard, New Empire “allows the monsters to tell their own narrative in a visual, nonverbal way.”
If you think it’s maybe a little too soon for Godzilla and Kong to be linking up again, Wingard begs to differ. Once the first GvK hit theaters and HBO Max, he recalled wanting to keep the two monsters in each other’s orbit. And in wanting to improve upon the original, one of his ideas back then was to make “It’s too exciting having them in one movie. And now, the next one has to be about the continuation of that relationship, which is going to be the team-up.”
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire stomps into theaters on April 12, 2024. Wingard’s full interview with IGN, which also includes his thoughts on reuniting with Dan Stevens after The Guest, can be read here.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.