Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire director Adam Wingard recently shared a number of new details about the upcoming film and specifically described Godzilla and Kong’s relationship as a “buddy-cop dysfunctional relationship dynamic.”
Godzilla in Godzilla X Kong: New Empire (2024), Legendary Pictures
In an interview with Empire, Wingard shared how Godzilla and Kong have come to a truce following the events of Godzilla vs Kong that saw Godzilla defeat Kong, only to be ambushed by MechaGodzilla. MechaGodzilla would prove too much for Godzilla alone and he required the aid of Kong to defeat it.
Wingard said, “There’s a bit of a truce — Godzilla’s in control of the surface world and Kong is down in Hollow Earth.”
He elaborated, “It wasn’t, ‘Okay, give me a call when something goes wrong, Kong. And I, Godzilla, will rush to the rescue.'”
Kong in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024), Warner Bros. Pictures
From there he compared the relationship of Kong and Godzilla to that of Riggs and Murtaugh in Lethal Weapon, “The buddy-cop dysfunctional relationship dynamic is probably the best one to describe Godzilla and Kong.”
He added, “My influences are always embedded with the ‘80s, and the ‘80s were prime for [that] storyline.”
While he describes the relationship as “the buddy-cop dysfunctional relationship dynamic,” Wingard also noted that it’s taken to another level because Godzilla and Kong don’t speak to each other, “There’s a lot of misunderstanding – the way that the monsters communicate isn’t straightforward.”
The Scar King in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024), Warner Bros. Pictures
Wingard also revealed that both Kong and Godzilla will evolve over the course of the film. He described Godzilla’s evolution “as his version of a training routine.”
He explained, “I’m really big into Shaw Brothers martial arts. Those films are always about, ‘Here’s a big threat, and you have to do all these things to pump yourself up so that you can take on that threat.’”
Wingard added, “You’re gonna see lots of different versions of Godzilla in this movie.”
While Godzilla will go through this “training routine,” Kong gets “a personal journey.” Wingard did not comment on what this personal journey entailed.
Godzilla and Kong in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024), Warner Bros. Pictures
This mention of the training routine appears to confirm a rumor from Ian Cassidy who shared Godzilla would fight a number of titans as well as drain a nuclear plant. After a fight in Greenland against an unnamed titan, Godzilla allegedly undergoes an evolution bursting forth from an icy cocoon.
He fights arachnid titan in Rome, goes to France and drains a nuclear plant, then fights an unspecified (he didn’t say). #GodzillaxKongTheNewEmpire pic.twitter.com/acXvP0krsr
— Ian CASSIDY (@IanCASS30649034) December 10, 2023
What do you make of Wingard’s comments regarding the relationship between Godzilla and Kong? What do you make of the idea that there will be numerous variations of Godzilla in the film?
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