The mythology of Legendary’s MonsterVerse has always been fairly loose, with the Monarch organization providing the majority of the connective tissue between Godzilla, Kong: Skull Island and King of the Monsters. It’s a different approach to building a shared universe that’s worked pretty successfully so far, when many others have tried to flesh out their worlds too quickly at the expense of the stories being told.
However, based on the first trailer, it looks as though Godzilla vs. Kong may have introduced the franchise’s first major legacy player. There were rumors making the rounds before King of the Monsters was released that Charles Dance was playing an older version of Tom Hiddleston’s James Conrad from Skull Island, which would have been a neat tie-in, but that didn’t turn out to be the case.
Instead, the mystery figure seen standing in front of a screen teasing the arrival of MechaGodzilla will be the MonsterVerse’s first second generation character, after it was confirmed that actor Shun Oguri is portraying Ren Serizawa. In the first two Godzilla movies, Ken Watanabe played Dr. Ishiro Serizawa, and it was revealed in King of the Monsters‘ novelization that he had a son named Ren.
Whereas Watanabe’s Ishiro was positioned as a founding member of Monarch and something of an ally to the Titans, though, Ren’s involvement in the MechaGodzilla project indicates that he’s continued his father’s work in a very different fashion by constructing a weapon capable of destroying Titans. The mystery at the heart of Godzilla vs. Kong surrounds why the giant lizard has gone rogue, and being hunted by a massive robotic version of himself is more than enough reason for him to turn his back on humanity once again.