This year saw Legendary Pictures release the second entry in their MonsterVerse series with Kong: Skull Island and they’re betting on the future in a big way with the Godzilla sequel now in production and a combo of the two set to arrive later in Godzilla vs. Kong.
Filmmaker Adam Wingard got the call up to the big leagues for the film, having previously only helmed smaller scale films like You’re Next, The Guest, and Blair Witch. Speaking with SlashFilm, Wingard had some teases for the big-screen showdown and revealed it would be set in present day, following the 2019 Godzilla sequel.
“Ours is more in continuity with the sequel to Godzilla right now. They’re doing Godzilla 2 with Mike Dougherty directing, so our film is in present day. We have a couple characters from Godzilla 2 in ours, but it’ll be interesting to see how Kong has fared over the years. You see him in that film and he’s just constantly under attack. Things are going wrong and there’s probably been lots of human intervention since then. It’ll be interesting to see a more rugged, a bit more aged Kong in this film.”
The script for Godzilla vs. Kong comes to us from a writer’s room run by Terry Rossio, who co-wrote the Pirates of the Caribbean films and also holds a story credit on 1998’s Godzilla. The room also included Star Trek Beyond and Star Trek 4 writers Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne, The Kingkiller Chronicles writer Lindsey Beer, Queen of the Air writer Cat Vasko, Maze Runner and Pacific Rim Uprising writer T.S. Nowlin, and comic and television writer J. Michael Straczynski.
It remains to be seen who will have final screenwriting credit on the film, and which characters from Godzilla 2 will appear, but Godzilla vs. Kong is set to arrive in theaters on May 22, 2020.
