In the upcoming Godzilla: King of the Monsters, the titular lizard will have to work pretty hard to earn that crown, especially when he’s contending with Titans as intimidating as Rodan.
The winged beast is looking especially formidable in this new image shared by Empire, which shows the classic monster looming behind some fighter planes and making them all look pretty feeble by comparison. In an interview with the publication, director Michael Dougherty explained that Rodan is an unpredictable character who’s capable of bringing destruction at a much quicker rate than his atomic-breathed friend.
“[Rodan] is a bit of a rogue… you never quite know where his loyalties lie,” Dougherty said. “Godzilla’s more of a lumbering, plodding presence; it takes him a couple of days to destroy a city like Tokyo. Rodan can level it without even thinking. He’s this massive A-bomb, so there’s a speed and ferocity he brings.”
As Thomas Middleditch’s character said in last December’s trailer, the world will have to learn which of the Titans are here to protect us, and which are here to threaten us. While it’s a safe bet that Godzilla will be one of the good guys, Rodan seems to be a more ambiguous case, though the same certainly can’t be said of the three-headed King Ghidorah, who’ll be slotting neatly into the “threat” category.
The last of the movie’s four major Titans is fan favorite Mothra, though Dougherty has also teased the involvement of a few original Titans, at least one of which might even be partially visible in the film’s various trailers and TV spots.
Of course, we can also expect to see plenty of human characters in the mix. Vera Farmiga, for instance, plays Dr. Emma Russell, who’ll reportedly find a way of communicating with the creatures. On top of that, you have Kyle Chandler, Millie Bobby Brown and Zhang Ziyi, all of whom are set to reprise their roles in 2020’s Godzilla vs. Kong. In the meantime, we’ll find out if Godzilla: King of the Monsters can keep us invested in this relatively young cinematic universe when the film hits theaters on May 31st, 2019.