The first trailer for Godzilla vs. Kong dropped yesterday, and the internet was instantly aflame with excited anticipation for the title fight between the world’s two most powerful kaiju. However, it also sparked the mystery of exactly how the titular throwdown will come about.
While Godzilla: King of the Monsters didn’t portray the lizard lord as being exactly benevolent, it did establish him as a force of nature – figuratively and literally – whose presence on Earth balances out the destruction caused by humanity, and he ultimately became an ally in the battle against King Ghidorah. However, this time around he’s embarked on a rampage not unlike how he was portrayed in the original Japanese movies, which completely goes against his character development.
There’s nothing in the trailer that suggests what caused Godzilla to turn against humanity, but it’s most likely that some outside force has affected his judgment or even driven him insane, meaning that Kong has been drafted in to stop him. After all, Kong was the only Titan not shown submitting to Godzilla after he took down Ghidorah (“Kong bows to no one”), which would suggest a greater strength of will than the average monster like Rodan, Scylla or Behemoth.
Perhaps it was even deliberate, turning Godzilla into a mindless force of destruction so that a tech company, perhaps Monarch, would be afforded the funding to construct Mechagodzilla, only for the monster lord’s rampage to get out of hand and the giant ape is instead utilized to put a stop to it before the automaton doppelgänger is ready to come online.
Whatever the reason for Godzilla cutting a swath through a jungle of skyscrapers, it doesn’t change the fact that the devastation needs to be stopped, and Godzilla vs. Kong will certainly feature a battle for the ages regardless of how reluctant each participant might be.
