Director Adam Wingard wants his Godzilla vs. Kong, sequel to both the upcoming Godzilla: King of the Monsters and this year’s Kong: Skull Island, to have a clear winner, unlike its 1962 inspiration, King Kong vs. Godzilla.
“The original film was very fun, but you feel a little let down that the movie doesn’t take a definitive stance. People are still debating now who won in that original movie, you know. So, I do want people to walk away from this film feeling like, okay, there is a winner,” Wingard told Entertainment Weekly.
So will it be King Kong, the 100-foot ape, or Godzilla, at over three times that size — 350 feet in the 2014 Godzilla? While there won’t be a definitive answer until Godzilla vs. Kong’s May 2020 release date, Wingard’s new interview with Slashfilm gives an excellent sense of how the combatants will be defined, inclining us to put our money on King Kong, the scrappy underdog.
Wingard described Godzilla vs. Kong as “in continuity with” Godzilla 2, placing it in the modern day, rather than the 1970s milieu of Kong: Skull Island. The movie will also some surviving characters from the in-production Godzilla sequel directed by Michael Dougherty Trick ‘r Treat, Krampus). That means King Kong will be more than 40 years older than in Kong: Skull Island, facing off against a beast with glowing, radioactive breathe and a significant size advantage. Plus, Godzilla will have recently defeated Rodan, Mothra and King Ghidorah (presumably).
It doesn’t sound like great odds for the ape king. And Wingard knows it, describing to Slashfilm how Godzilla vs. Kong will lean into Kong’s underdog qualities.
“You see him in [Kong: Skull Island] 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.”
A scrapper and a fighter, it sounds like the King Kong of Godzilla vs. Kong will have survived some rough years in between Skull Island and the modern day. Against Godzilla’s triumphant combat streak, it seems clear that Kong is being positioned as the dark horse victor going into the battle between the two monsters.
And who doesn’t love to see an underdog win? That’s why we’re betting on King Kong come 2020’s Godzilla vs. Kong.
