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The Titans Collide in First “Godzilla vs. Kong” Trailer

You could be forgiven for not quite knowing who to root for in director Adam Wingard’s upcoming Godzilla vs. Kong. Now, on the one hand, Kong is certainly closer to our meager human species genetically, and therefore we might have a rooting interest in his survival based purely on our own fellow-feeling for creatures closer to us. Weighting the scales further is the fact that the first trailer for the film clearly wants us rooting for Kong. It’s set him up as the protector to an orphaned girl named Jia (Kaylee Hottle), and Godzilla as the heavy hellbent on smashing humanity. Yet what we’ve learned from 2014’s Godzilla and 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters is that our nuclear-powered lizard king is actually a good guy. At least he was in those two films. So what’s going on here?

The battle between cinema’s two most legendary monsters comes from a script by Eric Pearson (Thor: Ragnarok, Black Widow) and Max Borenstein (Godzilla, Kong: Skull Island). The trailer is pretty much action, start to finish, which is exactly what you want from a movie about our two most cherished beasts going toe-to-claw. One gets the sense that while we’re being led to believe this is a battle between good (Kong) and evil (Godzilla), there’s going to be more to it than that. It’s hard to imagine we’ve spent two whole films learning Godzilla is actually humanity’s savior only to be made Kong’s foil here. There’s a mention in the trailer that something has triggered Godzilla’s wrath and made him extremely ornery—could this mean it’s not actually Godzilla’s fault, but someone or something is making him crazy? Considering the shadowy group Monarch has been meddling in the affairs of Titans in all the Godzilla films and Kong: Skull Island, you know they’ll be up to something here. You’ll also spy a few other monsters in the mix, suggesting that this could go from Godzilla vs. Kong to Godzilla and Kong vs. something truly terrifying.

The cast includes Millie Bobby Brown (fresh from surviving the drama in Godzilla: King of the Monsters) and Kyle Chandler (our Godzilla alumnus nonpareil, he’s been around since the 2014 reboot), with newcomers Brian Tyree Henry, Rebecca Hall, Alexander Skarsgård, Julian Dennison, and Eiza González. 

Godzilla vs. Kong hits theaters and HBO Max on March 26. Check out the trailer below:

Here’s your official synopsis:

From Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures comes the long-awaited face-off between two icons in the epic adventure “Godzilla vs. Kong,” directed by Adam Wingard.
Legends collide in “Godzilla vs. Kong” as these mythic adversaries meet in a spectacular battle for the ages, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. Kong and his protectors undertake a perilous journey to find his true home, and with them is Jia, a young orphaned girl with whom he has formed a unique and powerful bond. But they unexpectedly find themselves in the path of an enraged Godzilla, cutting a swath of destruction across the globe. The epic clash between the two titans—instigated by unseen forces—is only the beginning of the mystery that lies deep within the core of the Earth.

The film stars Alexander Skarsgård (“Big Little Lies,” “The Little Drummer Girl”), Millie Bobby Brown (“Stranger Things”), Rebecca Hall (“Christine,” “Professor Marston and the Wonder Women”), Brian Tyree Henry (“Joker,” “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”), Shun Oguri (“Weathering with You”), Eiza González (“Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw”), Julian Dennison (“Deadpool 2”), with Kyle Chandler (“Godzilla: King of the Monsters”) and Demián Bichir (“The Nun,” “The Hateful Eight”).

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Featured image: Caption: (L-r) GODZILLA battles KONG in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “GODZILLA VS. KONG,” a Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures

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