As the inevitable showdown between two of Earth’s greatest, biggest monsters approaches, the hints of how the two will meet are being revealed. According to a report by CinemaBlend.com’s Nick Romano, an organization called “Monarch” made its first contact with Kong decades before the events of 2014’s Godzilla.
In Kong: Skull Island, Tom Hiddleston‘s character Captain James Conrad is a British Special Air Service soldier hired to lead an expedition on Skull Island. Per Romano, “a team of Monarch operatives…jumpstart this expedition.”
“It’s a landslide expedition, officially, but John Goodman, who plays the guy form Monarch, is sort of pulling the strings in the background,” producer Alex Garcia said, per Romano. “We come to realize, obviously, that they knew much more than they let on initially.”
While Conrad is skeptical of Bill Randa’s (Goodman) mission, the SAS soldier is described as “a man without a mission.”
“He doesn’t have a direction, and I think there’s probably a question mark in his soul, too,” Hiddleston said, per Romano. “Like, where do I go now? What do I do now? So, he gets back on the boat on the back foot. He’s there, kind of skeptical, and he takes the money, and then they get to the island, and there’s a huge prehistoric ape on the island, and I think that’s where suddenly this Conrad has been kind of spiritually asleep or sleep-walking.”
Despite subtle Easter eggs throughout Kong: Skull Island, Garcia reaffirmed that the 2017 film is very much just a Kong story.
“Remember, this movie is set in the ’70s,” Garcia said. “Godzilla was set in 2000, so there is a lot of of time to go before he’d be ready to face off.”
Godzilla 2, officially named Godzilla: King of Monsters, is set to be released in 2019 before 2020’s Godzilla vs. Kong. Oddly enough, it appears Kong has been stripped of his “king” title in this cinematic universe.
Kong: Skull Island, which also stars Oscar-winning actress Brie Larson (Room), hits theaters on March 10.
