Warner Bros. has announced its main cast for Godzilla: King of the Monsters. A sequel to the 2014 Gareth Edwards film and the next in their MonsterVerse series after this year’s Kong: Skull Island, the film officially began production today in Georgia. Michael Dougherty (Trick ‘r Treat, Krampus) directs, from a screenplay by himself and co-writer Zach Shields.
Millie Bobby Brown (“Stranger Things“), Vera Farmiga (“Bates Motel“), and Kyle Chandler (“Friday Night Lights“) lead an impressive cast also comprised of Thomas Middleditch, Bradley Whitford, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Charles Dance, Aishia Hinds, and Zhang Ziyi. They are joined by Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins, who are reprising their characters from the 2014 film.
“The new story follows the heroic efforts of the crypto-zoological agency Monarch as its members face off against a battery of god-sized monsters, including the mighty Godzilla, who collides with Mothra, Rodan, and his ultimate nemesis, the three-headed King Ghidorah. When these ancient super-species—thought to be mere myths – rise again, they all vie for supremacy, leaving humanity’s very existence hanging in the balance.”
Given the monster combination, it sounds like Warner Bros. and Legendary’s Godzilla sequel might prove to be a loose update of 1964’s Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster. The fifth film in the original core Toho series*, that particularly tale saw Godzilla, Mothra, and Rodan duking it out a bit before combining their forces to take down the extraterrestrial monster threat of King Ghidorah. I doubt they’ll be making Ghidorah a space monster here, of course.
Dougherty has promised fans more screentime for Godzilla this time around, as well as a slightly updated look. Furthermore, the filmmaker is also expected to use practical FX for some sequences involving the monsters. It sounds to me like this franchise and its massive legacy are in good hands.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters stomps into theaters on March 22nd, 2019.
* – Not counting the original Mothra and Rodan solo films, of course.
