GODZILLA MINUS ONE Director Watched GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE and Shares His Thoughts
Thanks to Godzilla Minus One, there’s been a lot of hype building for Legendary Entertainment’s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which is going to be a completely different film. While I would love to Godzilla in action again, Godzilla x Kong isn’t necessarily what I’m looking for in a Godzilla movie.
Godzilla Minus One director Takashi Yamazaki recently revealed on X that he’s seen Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, and he’s shared his thoughts on it, and it turns out that he enjoyed it! He briefly commented:
"I was able to watch the big movie early! It is super fun and gorgeous. Be sure to watch it on the big screen.”
In a previous interview with Empire, the director was asked to share his thoughts on how Legendary’s MonsterVerse uses Godzilla, and he responded:
“The Hollywood interpretation of Godzilla is a very interesting use of the IP. [The monster] can endure and survive many different interpretations. To me, it's a more fun [version] of what Godzilla can be – the classic Toho version did explore something like that at one point in its history. Within that genre, I think they do a good job of [balancing] what the humans do versus what the kaiju are doing."
It’s still hard for me to buy into the hype because the last couple of films in Legendary’s MonsterVerse films have been awful. This movie doesn’t look like it will be any better. But, with my expectations so low, maybe it will surprise me!
In the upcoming film, “The epic battle continues! Legendary Pictures’ cinematic Monsterverse follows up the explosive showdown of Godzilla vs. Kong with an all-new adventure that pits the almighty Kong and the fearsome Godzilla against a colossal undiscovered threat hidden within our world, challenging their very existence—and our own. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire delves further into the histories of these Titans and their origins, as well as the mysteries of Skull Island and beyond, while uncovering the mythic battle that helped forge these extraordinary beings and tied them to humankind forever.”
The director previously talked about the relationship between Godzilla and Kong, saying: “There’s a bit of a truce — Godzilla’s in control of the surface world and Kong is down in Hollow Earth. It wasn’t, ‘Okay, give me a call when something goes wrong, Kong. And I, Godzilla, will rush to the rescue!’ The buddy-cop dysfunctional relationship dynamic is probably the best one to describe Godzilla and Kong. My influences are always embedded with the ‘80s, and the ‘80s were prime for [that] storyline. There’s a lot of misunderstanding – the way that the monsters communicate isn’t straightforward.”
The film stars Rebecca Hall (Godzilla vs. Kong), Brian Tyree Henry (Godzilla vs. Kong), Dan Stevens (Legion), Kaylee Hottle (Godzilla vs. Kong), Alex Ferns (The Batman) and Fala Chen (Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings).
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire opens in theaters on April 12, 2024.