What to know
The film was announced in October 2015, when Legendary unveiled plans for a shared Godzilla and Kong universe that would lead to their meeting. The writers’ room was assembled in March 2017, and Adam Wingard was named director that May. Eric Pearson and Max Borenstein wrote the screenplay from a story by Terry Rossio, Michael Dougherty and Zach Shields. It is the 36th film in the Godzilla franchise; the two monsters had already clashed on screen in Toho’s King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962).
Filming began on November 12, 2018, in Hawaii under the working title “Apex” (the USS Missouri, Manoa Falls, downtown Honolulu), moved to Village Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast and to Brisbane, and wrapped in April 2019, with Hong Kong among the final locations. Wingard preferred real locations to sets wherever possible. After several delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the film opened internationally on March 24, 2021, and in the United States on March 31, simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max, where it became the service’s most successful launch up to that point. Tom Holkenborg composed the score.
The sequel is Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024), also directed by Wingard. The full order of the films and series is in our MonsterVerse watch order.
