Is Netflix ‘Skull Island’ canon to the MonsterVerse?

All eight episodes of the Netflix animated series Skull Island are officially available. The show follows a group of explorers who end up shipwrecked whilst searching for their friend Annie. With numerous adaptations of King Kong knocking about, you may be wondering whether this series fits in with Legendary’s franchise, which includes Kong and Godzilla, as well as several other well known Toho Kaijus.

Legendary currently has four films in its ‘MonsterVerse’ including Godzilla (2014), Kong: Skull Island (2017), Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), and Godzilla vs. Kong (2021), as well as the upcoming Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, set for release in 2024. All these films are live action, as opposed to the show, which is animated (it’s actually from the same animation studio that gave us Castlevania) so it makes sense that some would question whether Netflix’s Skull Island series is a part of the universe. 

Over the years, Legendary has made use of different mediums to tell parts of the overarching story — there is even a canon comic book series that sees a different expedition to the Kong home called Skull Island: Birth of Kong. Thus, it’s not too crazy to think that Legendary would make use of animation as well. As it turns out, the studio actually did, as — despite the difference in art style — the animated show is in fact a part of the MonsterVerse.

How does the show fit in with the rest?

Skull Island actually takes place during the 90s, which puts it after the events of Kong’s first film but before Godzilla’s first appearance in 2014. It also establishes the idea that Kong’s home doubles as Legendary’s version of Monster Island.

Okay, it’s not set in stone that Skull Island is officially Monster Island, but a character in the show refers to it as such, and Legendary knows what it’s doing by namedropping such an iconic setting. Monster Island is a location from the Toho Godzilla films of the ’60s and ’70s, and it was known to be Godzilla’s home as well as the home of multiple other Kaiju. 

Obviously this iteration is changing the story a bit, as Monster Island is now Kong’s home, but the next film does suggest we could be seeing more monsters on Skull Island. The title of The New Empire does sort of make it sound like we’ll be seeing Kong and Godzilla moving in together and ruling over the other monsters of the island — presumably after they beat the evil-looking ape from the film’s teaser trailer. The Netflix show definitely looks like it’s doing its part to set that those future storylines up.