It sounds like a sweeping generalization, and an admittedly harsh one at that, but nobody gives a flying f*ck about the human characters that populate Warner Bros. and Legendary’s MonsterVerse. The majority of them exist entirely as a method to deliver exposition, which is largely down to the fact that the selling points of the franchise don’t speak in anything other than guttural roars.
It’s been a recurring theme throughout the four-film series, and it’s still very much part of Godzilla vs. Kong. If you were to poll ten people coming out of the theater when the movie was breaking records last weekend and asked them to give you the full names of five humans that had major speaking roles in the 113-minute creature feature, most of them would be completely stumped.
That’s not the fault of the talent themselves, of course, who know exactly what they’re signing up for when they agree to feature in MonsterVerse blockbusters, but at least Alexander Skarsgard is handling it with dignity and grace. The actor takes top billing as Dr. Nathan Lind, a geologist who’s dedicated his career to the idea of the Hollow Earth, and in a new interview, Skarsgard admitted that nobody’s coming to the theater to see him, and he’s okay with it.
“It’s humbling for a narcissistic actor like myself, to be put in my place, to show up on set and know that no one will go to see this movie because I’m in it. But I’m under no illusion that I’m the star of the show and that anyone will go see the movie because they want to see Nathan Lind, the geologist.”
Despite being the first name billed in the opening credits of Godzilla vs. Kong, Skarsgard’s Dr. Lind is so unimportant in the grand scheme of things that when he discovers that not only is the Hollow Earth a real thing but he’s heading down there himself, the script doesn’t make a single mention of the fact that he’s literally vindicated, justified and completed his entire life’s work in one fell swoop, and that’s because nobody cares.
