Spoilers ahead if you haven't seen Godzilla: King of the Monsters just yet.

One thing that a good number of fans knew going into their screening of Michael Dougherty's Godzilla: King of the Monsters is that the title titan would live to stomp and roar again in the 2020 film Godzilla vs Kong, from director Adam Wingard (Death Note). So while the tension of a pivotal plot point in G:KotM was undercut a bit by the mere existence of this already-announced follow-up film, there was plenty of mystery left as to just what Godzilla and the monster-hunting/protecting team Monarch would do next. And it's to the movie's credits sequence and post-credits scene we now turn to for our first solid bit of intel as to how the 2020 movie is going to shake out. Last chance to turn back due to spoilers.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters introduced a few things into the mythology: There was, of course, the space-derived Monster Zero, a.k.a. Ghidorah, a three-headed lightning-spewing dragon who challenged Godzilla as the Earth's alpha/apex predator and nearly upset the planet's finely turned ecosystem. On the human side of things, the efforts of Monarch--an organization developed to study the numerous titans scattered around the globe, keep tabs on them, and if necessary (and if possible) destroy them--have turned pro-Godzilla thanks to the efforts (and sacrifice) of the late Dr. Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) and Mark Russell (Kyle Chandler). But it was former Monarch scientist-turned-eco-terrorist Dr. Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga) who forced Monarch's hand when she allied with a mercenary splinter group led by Jonah Alan (Charles Dance). Though Emma made the ultimate sacrifice to save her family, while also giving Godzilla a chance to reclaim his alpha status, Jonah's eco-terrorist group is still in operation.

godzilla-king-of-the-monsters-post-credits-scene-explained
Image via Warner Bros

And that brings us to the credits sequence; sit tight and we'll get to the post-credits scene in just a minute. A number of news clippings, headlines, and videos play over the credits, all eventually leading to the epic clash between Godzilla--now the alpha monster among the released and remaining Titans--and King Kong, an alpha of his own making on Skull Island. The credits build and build to this inevitable beat-down, not just between the atomic lizard and the mega-ape, but between their rival factions, presumably on Kong's home turf. A bit more mythology is revealed here thanks to an ancient cave painting (or whatever) revealing that Godzilla and Kong are destined to clash. The outcome of that battle remains to be seen, but a recent promo poster promised that "One Will Fall." Maybe this time we'll actually get the alternate endings that we've wanted (or thought had already happened) for decades.

But as for the post-credits scene, things are a little murkier. Taking a page from Pacific Rim 2: Kaiju Boogaloo, it looks like the arrival of Titans has sparked up a new cottage industry for black market monster parts. You want a Rodan tooth or some dust for Mothra's wings, maybe a cheek scraping of Godzilla himself? You can get it, but it's gonna cost you. Someone who apparently has a ton of money to throw around on Titan salvage is the aforementioned Jonah Alan. He's seen in the post-credits scene talking to a black market dealer taking refuge in what I believe is an abandoned Monarch site. Despite the fact that Godzilla not only went thermonuclear on Ghidorah and presumably negated the three-headed space beast's impressive regenerative abilities by straight eating/plasma-blasting its last remaining noggin, something of the wannabe king of the monsters must have remained viable. Why? Because the scavengers were able to take possession of a fully grown Ghidorah head and store it in their lair!

godzilla-king-of-the-monsters-post-credits-scene-explained

This opens up a lot of possibilities: For Jonah, his science team can now take the regenerative abilities of Ghidorah and use it to either restore fallen Titans, juice up their own soldiers, or make Titans of their own that they would have full control of. That last option should be exciting to Godzilla fans because it opens the door to the possible insanity of Mechagodzilla and, yes, Hyper / Mecha-King Ghidorah. If the next movie doesn't have Charles Dance saying, "Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology..." then what's the point, really? While MechaGodzilla and Hyper Mecha-King Ghidorah were mostly machines, the original Mecha-King Ghidorah was a straight-up cyborg, which is exactly where I hope the franchise is going. Perhaps the abomination of space dragon and high-tech cyborg will show up as a surprise to the monsters of Skull Island, forcing Godzilla and Kong to team up, or perhaps this is one Titan who's being kept in reserve for yet another unannounced film. Either way, consider us intrigued.

For more on Godzilla: King of the Monsters, be sure to check out these recent, relevant, and related write-ups: