If you’re eager to see two big-screen kaiju legends throwdown, Godzilla vs. Kong looks to deliver — big time. We thought we were going to have to wait until May 21st to see what happens when Kong and Godzilla finally face off, but Warner Bros. recently announced the showdown is hitting theaters and HBO Max on March 26th instead, an especially welcomed shift after unveiling that stunning poster and now the first full trailer for the film which you can find at the bottom of this article.
As described in the film’s official synopsis, the upcoming installment of the Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures’ franchise sees “fearsome monsters Godzilla and King Kong square off in an epic battle for the ages, while humanity looks to wipe out both of the creatures and take back the planet once and for all.” While the description might hold true for some of the human characters in the film, one can’t help but wonder if both Godzilla and Kong have strong enough human allies ready to step up and fight to protect them.
In this trailer, the kaiju who gets the spotlight the most in that respect is Kong. At the end of 2017’s Kong: Skull Island, Kong and the humans work together to defeat “The Big One,” the biggest Skullcrawler of the bunch. When the group leaves, they vow to keep Kong’s existence secret, but as Tom Hiddleston’s character predicts, ultimately the world does become aware. In the end credits of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, we see an ABC News headline stating, “Seismic Disturbances Reported on Skull Island: Island’s ability to foster enormous wildlife, including Kong, has researchers baffled.” After that it’s,“New Titans Drawn to Skull Island,” and then, “Monarch Boosts Forces Around Skull Island.”
So while there’s clearly concern about the danger Kong poses, Alexander Skarsgård’s character knows that they have no choice but to join forces. As scientist Mark Russell (Kyle Chandler) points out, Godzilla’s been out and about, wreaking havoc and hurting people and no one knows why. How do you manage such a situation? Send in King Kong to stop him, apparently. Perhaps what’s fueling this outburst has something to do with a bit of history that’s teased in the Godzilla: King of the Monsters credits and stated by Rebecca Hall’s character outright in this trailer: the myths are real. There was a war and Godzilla and Kong are the last ones standing.
So does that prove the poster’s tagline true, “One will fall?” I’m going with a big old no on that one. One of the youngest characters in Godzilla vs. Kong is Jia, a young orphaned child who Kong has sworn to protect. On top of that, she’s the only one Kong will communicate with. On the other side of things, we’ve got Millie Bobby Brown returning as Madison Russell. She seems awfully busy researching what Godzilla’s up to. While the world may deem Godzilla as a threat, does Madison think otherwise? Could this new character and Madison help facilitate some sort of truce between these long-warring kaiju?
We’ll have to wait until the movie’s released on March 26 to find out, but what we do know right now is that director Adam Wingard is continuing the franchise’s trend of delivering more epic imagery, with some especially stunning pops of color in the mix. While we haven’t been completely without blockbuster fare this past year, there isn’t nearly as much of it. The itch for more epic CG-fueled battles is high right now and as much as I’d love to see it all play out on the big screen, this new Godzilla vs. Kong trailer suggests that Wingard might deliver something that could successfully fill that void at home.
The Godzilla vs. Kong cast also includes Demián Bichir, Brian Tyree Henry, Zhang Ziyi, Eiza Gonzalez, Lance Reddick, Jessica Henwick, and Julian Dennison. Max Borenstein, who wrote Godzilla and Skull Island, wrote the Godzilla vs. Kong script with Black Widow scribe Eric Pearson.
Godzilla vs. Kong will be released in theaters nationwide and on HBO Max on March 26. Watch the first trailer for Godzilla vs. Kong below. For more, see all of the Warner Bros. movies coming to HBO Max this year.