The Monsterverse's Next Film Should Be All Kaiju

The Monsterverse’s Next Film Should Be All Kaiju

The Monsterverse franchise seems to have found its basic operating procedure. After the dueling titans met on the battlefield in Godzilla vs. Kong, the cinematic universe felt perfectly well established. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire demonstrates the potential for future outings. It also continues the long-term trend of cutting human characters out of the narrative. Their roles seem to keep shrinking, much to the delight of the audience. It’s time to cut them out altogether and focus on the monsters.

The continuation of Monsterverse is guaranteed, thanks to the overwhelming financial success of Godzilla x Kong. The film is currently still in theaters, but it has more than tripled its production budget in box office profits. It’s a considerable victory for fans of Legendary’s kaiju efforts, but it could also be a bit of a trap. This may seal the tone and presentation of the film as the new default operating state for the Monsterverse. That will have upsides and downsides.

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The Monsterverse Tells Solid Kaiju Stories

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The Monsterverse is easily the second-best cinematic universe on the market today. While Marvel remains the frontrunner by any logical metric, the Monsterverse is the only example to take their lessons to heart. While a dozen imitators tripped over their own greed and delivered rushed garbage, the Monsterverse followed the straightforward blueprint and reaped the rewards. Godzilla, like Iron Man, was a test run that proved the genre’s potential. It established the most popular name in the bunch, though Tony Stark wasn’t a leading figure at the time, and set the stage for future outings. Kong: Skull Island demonstrates the Monsterverse’s ability to tell more nuanced stories. It’s the first and only project to date with a satisfying human narrative. Godzilla: King of the Monsters was a step forward and two steps back. While its fight scenes remain astonishing, its human characters are dull and one-dimensional.

Godzilla vs. Kong boldly put aside most of the human characters to focus entirely on monster action. It received praise for its brevity, simplicity, and well-placed priorities. It spent two films building up the title fight and allowed audiences to luxuriate in several promised encounters. It even delivered a conclusive winner, because Godzilla fans are never wrong. It’s a story of animals defending their territories, struggling through old grudges, identifying new threats, and eventually establishing shaky alliances. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire doubled down on those concepts. A ton of the movie follows Kong in the Hollow Earth, living a life free from human intervention. He communicates his experiences through physical acting and subtitled grunts. Godzilla’s subplot sees him hunt down several other kaiju in service of his age-old feud with Kong. They have their own stories, and though humans often feel the need to spell them out in English, the monsters drive the narrative. GxK proves that Godzilla and Kong could carry the movie without the peanut gallery.

The Monsterverse’s Human Characters Lack Depth

Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus One makes for an interesting comparison with Godzilla x Kong. They represent the two ways in which fans can enjoy kaiju entertainment. The former captures the haunting poignance of Ishiro Honda’s original 1954 classic. The latter, conversely, captures the goofy fun of every subsequent sequel. No one would ever want the humans removed from Godzilla Minus One because they’re flawless, beautiful, and engaging characters standing head and shoulders above the cast of most action films. Unfortunately, the Monsterverse’s human characters tend to be one-dimensional wastes of space. While examples like Bryan Tyree Henry’s conspiracy theorist or Dan Stevens’ Trapper are fun, they add little to the experience. Ken Watanabe’s Ishirō Serizawa is another exception, but his self-sacrifice in Godzilla: King of the Monsters omits him from future installments. The Monsterverse has made no effort to introduce compelling humans and has outgrown the need for its dull returning cast.

Fans Want an All-Kaiju Movie

With two compelling stars and a world free from humans, the Monsterverse is perfectly positioned to deliver a new kind of monster movie. Godzilla x Kong director Adam Wingard has spoken publicly about the potential for future Monsterverse outings. The most recent entry spends a ton of time in the Hollow Earth, watching Kong struggle to find his place. He hunts for food, fights a newfound tribe of apes, and adopts a new son. While Godzilla doesn’t enjoy the same focus, Adam Wingard has suggested rectifying that situation. In an interview with IGN, Wingard had this to say:

In the way that Kong is treated in this movie, if this movie is successful, I think that the next movie will be the Godzilla version of what we did with this movie, kind of pushing deeper into his story.

This is a solid pitch, but it would be even better without the inclusion of human characters wasting time. Just follow Godzilla, exploring his unique relationships with the remaining Titans he left alive. He’s a character with personality, desires, and goals. While Kong has proven easier to humanize due to his mammalian features and the fact that he doesn’t sleep quite as often as Godzilla, the King of the Monsters deserves a chance.

The Monsterverse may have been building towards a bold new kind of monster movie since its first entry. It’s time to take the plunge. There’s room in this franchise for an engaging human presence. Kong: Skull Island stands out by giving its leads understandable dramatic motivations. Unfortunately, the other movies keep their human characters around to fill time and provide exposition. They’ve outlived their usefulness, and it’s time for the monsters to tell their own stories.

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