Had Godzilla vs. Kong disappointed at the box office, then there was every chance Warner Bros. would have pulled the plug on the MonsterVerse. King of the Monsters had disappointed at the box office and fallen flat with critics, while the extensive reshoots and poor test screenings had many folks predicting the worst for Adam Wingard’s supersized smackdown.
In the end, Godzilla vs. Kong comfortably out-earned its predecessor despite having the effects of the pandemic to content with, and a $467 million haul makes it the second highest-grossing Hollywood blockbuster released since the end of 2019. On top of that, a 75% Rotten Tomatoes score puts it roughly on a par with Godzilla and Kong: Skull Island, so it was a major return to form for the franchise.
Wingard recently entered talks to helm the next chapter in the MonsterVerse, but we’re hearing from our sources – the same ones who told us HBO Max were inviting pitches for TV shows set in the Harry Potter universe long before it was confirmed – that Warner Bros. and Legendary are also considering prequels set in the distant past.
The next kaiju spectacular has been heavily speculated to be an updated Son of Kong, and while Skull Island was a prequel, diving thousands of years into human history would be a fascinating idea. Imagine an effects-driven MonsterVerse epic unfolding during the earliest days of the Titans emerging from the Hollow Earth to establish dominance, which could potentially pit them against the ancient Romans, Greeks, Mayans, Egyptians, Vikings or even goddamn dinosaurs. It’d be a fresh spin on the concept, and an awesome one to boot.