Seats were rumbling in Hall H at SDCC earlier today when Godzilla strolled in, briefly moderated a Detective Pikachu panel, and then introduced an earth-pounding new trailer for Godzilla: King of the Monsters.
(That Pikachu thing didn’t happen.)
The 2019 release directed by Michael Dougherty is a sequel to the 2014 reboot, but it’s also technically the third in the modern big monster franchise that continued with last year’s Kong: Skull Island, whose post-credits cave painting sequence gave us a first glimpse of some classic monsters and their connection to the larger mythology.
Down at the ground level, humans Vera Farmiga and Millie Bobby Brown play a mother and daughter who seem to be letting the building-sized beasts drive a wedge between them. Farmiga’s Dr. Emma Russell appears highly interested in using Godzilla and friends for a Thanos-style murder plot, so maybe it’s best if Brown gets as far away from her as possible. After all, you can’t have huge, hulking monsters without mankind as the real villain.
Naturally (atomically?), the real stars of the trailer are some scaly, familiar faces. Rodan. Mothra. Ghidorah. Carry us away on your massive wings, you beautiful, misunderstood baddies. And Tywin Lannister himself Charles Dance saying “Long live the king” right after we see Ghidorah’s three heads is a very nice, double meta touch.
Dougherty and company heard the advice about going big or going home, and they are decidedly not going home. This is a lot of Godzilla lore for a Godzilla movie, with a ton of characters colliding for city-leveling wrestling matches. That’s on top of a stellar cast that, beyond Farmiga and Brown, includes Bradley Whitford, Sally Hawkins, Ken Watanabe, Ziyi Zhang, Aisha Hinds, Kyle Chandler and more.
Start thinking of more synonyms for gigantic and set a countdown clock for May 2019.
Editor’s note: Nerdist Industries is a subsidiary of Legendary Digital Networks.
Images: Warner Bros., Legendary
