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It’s a good time to be a fan of the MonsterVerse, which celebrated its 10th anniversary last year. In addition to Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 on the way and other spinoffs being developed for people with an Apple TV+ subscription, a sequel to Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire was announced in May 2024 and is on track for a spring 2027 release. Now today brings word of the first new casting for the sixth MonsterVerse movie, and while that’s great, there’s also some news that leaves me concerned about this franchise installment.
Kaitlyn Dever Is Being Lined Up For The Godzilla X Kong Sequel
According to Deadline, Kaitlyn Dever is in negotiations to join the Godzilla x Kong sequel, though no details about who she’d be playing were revealed. Dever’s notable credits range from movies like Booksmart, Dear Evan Hansen, Ticket to Paradise and No One Will Save You, to TV shows like Justified and Last Man Standing. Between this and playing Abby in The Last of Us Season 2, which premieres in April on HBO, the actress will be leaving quite the stamp on the science fiction genre in the next few years.
Humans Will Reportedly Have A Bigger Role In The Sequel
While I’m pleased to hear Kaitlyn Dever will lend her talents to the Godzilla x Kong sequel, as it’s about time she get to participate in a blockbuster event, there was something else in Deadline’s report that caught my eye. It states that while Godzilla and Kong will still be the main attraction, Legendary, the production company behind the MonsterVerse projects, “is looking to build on its human characters.” Furthermore, the upcoming movie will combine “character-driven storytelling with its signature epic scale and Titan-clashing action” coming from the vision of director Grant Sputore, who succeeds Adam Wingard.
Look, I’m not one of those people who minds human characters in the MonsterVerse movies and TV shows, and frankly, I’m not convinced a movie consisting entirely of Titans would work, especially if you’re trying to pad out a 2-hour runtime. But let’s be honest with ourselves, no one is going to a MonsterVerse movie for the stellar character work. They’re going to see giant monsters beat each other up and ignore the collateral damage they’re inflicting on humans in the process.
I’m not saying that efforts shouldn’t be taken to make the human characters in MonsterVerse stories interesting rather than generic, but it concerns me to hear that the Godzilla x Kong sequel wants to place more of an emphasis on them. I don’t want this to come to the detriment of what’s in store for Godzilla and Kong, so my fingers are crossed this won’t be the case. It’s one thing to delve deeply into characterization in a TV show like Monarch: Legacy of Monsters since there’s a lot more time to work with and less of an emphasis on the Titans, but for a major motion picture, there’s a fine balance that needs to be navigated efficiently.
The Godzilla x Kong sequel is set to arrive in theaters on March 26, 2027. Stream its five cinematic predecessors with a Max subscription while we wait for more news on what’s ahead in this Titan-filled world.