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Godzilla: King of the Monsters Confirmed for SDCC 2018
Godzilla: King of the Monsters is headed to this month's International Comic-Con in San Diego, according to director Michael Dougherty. King of the Monsters is the sequel to the 2014 Godzilla film reboot directed by Gareth Edwards, as well as the third installment in Warner Bros.' MonsterVerse cinematic universe after that film and last year's Kong: Skull Island. Plans are already in motion to bring the Godzilla and Kong sub-franchises together in 2020, with the appropriately-titled crossover Godzilla vs. Kong from You're Next and Death Note filmmaker Adam Wingard.
Dougherty, like Wingard, comes from a background in horror filmmaking (Trick 'r Treat, Krampus) and is pitting Godzilla against some equally larger than life opponents in his sequel; Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah, to be exact. Save for the MONARCH scientists played by Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins in Edwards' reboot, King of the Monsters feature an entirely new cast of humans for Godzilla and his monster pals to terrorize. Their ranks include Vera Farmiga (The Conjuring), Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things), O'Shea Jackson Jr. (Straight Outta Compton), Kyle Chandler (Bloodline), and Charles Dance (Game of Thrones).
Edwards' reboot generated a lot of buzz when it debuted its first teaser at the 2012 International Comic-Con, well before casting (much less filming) had gotten underway. WB is clearly hoping for a similar outcome when King of the Monsters makes it way to San Diego in a few weeks from now, and will almost certainly show off the first footage from the movie (before, hopefully, releasing it online). Dougherty has confirmed through his Twitter account that his Godzilla sequel is headed to Hall H this year, but has refrained from revealing anything else beyond that for the time being.
With Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm sitting SDCC out this year, WB is taking advantage of their absence by making a big push for its movies and TV shows, across the genre spectrum. The studio will start things off by giving its New Line Cinema horror releases (The Nun, IT Chapter Two) the spotlight on Wednesday, July 20, aka. Preview Night. In addition to hosting panels for a variety of WBTV series from Friday through Sunday, the studio will premiere the Aquaman trailer in Hall H, along with potentially a Shazam! teaser trailer, the King of the Monsters teaser, and new material from Wonder Woman 1984.
If WB plays its cards right, then its cinematic universes (The Conjuring franchise, MonsterVerse, DC Extended Universe) will dominate SDCC headlines later this month. That would be all the better news for Godzilla: King of the Monsters, now that the sequel has been moved back to May 2019, pitting it against some intimidating competition (most notably, of course, Avengers 4). A strong showing at Comic-Con would certainly get the Godzilla sequel's marketing campaign started on the right foot.
- Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) release date: Mar 22, 2019
- Godzilla vs. Kong (2020) release date: May 22, 2020
