After months of wondering when Warner Bros. were finally going to pull the trigger, the first trailer for Godzilla vs. Kong exploded online yesterday, and it would be an understatement to say that the long-awaited footage went down a storm with fans.
Everything about the latest installment in the MonsterVerse looks epic in terms of size, scale and spectacle, but perhaps the most pressing question is where the franchise goes from here. After all, Legendary threw their biggest drawing cards into the same blockbuster after just three movies of buildup, and once the two title characters have battled each other, there aren’t many obvious directions for the mythology to go, regardless of who comes out on top by the time the credits roll.
However, the latest reports are claiming that a spinoff series is in the works for HBO Max, one that would follow the secretive Monarch organization. The mysterious group of monster trackers have provided the majority of the connective tissue throughout the MonsterVerse, with canon having established them in 1946, while they continue to keep an eye on any Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms to this day.
WB’s streaming service already has a number of high profile exclusives in the works based on their biggest properties, and there are definitely far worse ideas out there than a Monarch show. Applying the standard procedural format to the MonsterVerse and adopting a ‘monster of the week’ storytelling method would be a smart way of shining the spotlight on lesser-known kaiju, as well as keeping interest in the franchise high until the next slate of potential feature films are decided on, which is presumably dependent on how Godzilla vs. Kong fares.
