Everything You Need To Remember Before Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire
The MonsterVerse franchise is an underrated contender in the cinematic universe wars, with a clear watching order that avoids confusion or an overwhelming number of entries. Part of the success of the franchise is that the continuity and canon are not overly complicated — well, it is a franchise about giant monsters punching each other in the face, after all.
After doing what all big cinematic universes do and expanding to TV — albeit with a really good show in this case, the MonsterVerse is back on the big screen with "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire." The movie is set to not only bring the King of the Monsters and the Eighth Wonder of the World together once again but also bring a bit of a buddy-cop vibe to the MonsterVerse.
Still, as relatively straight-forward as the franchise is, there are still things you should remember before watching "Godzilla x Kong," so let this be your guide to the important things that you absolutely need to know about the MonsterVerse ahead of its latest entry.
The Hollow Earth
One of the weirdest concepts in the MonsterVerse is that of the Hollow Earth. This is more than just a copy of "Journey to the Center of the Earth," but an idea central to the entire franchise, and an entire ecosystem full of Titans and other giant creatures. We first heard about the Hollow Earth in "Godzilla: King of the Monsters," in which a Monarch expedition followed Godzilla into a temple in his name inside the Hollow Earth, confirming the existence of a world within ours.
Then "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" expanded on this, showing how Monarch discovered the Hollow Earth. More importantly, the Hollow Earth is home to portals that allow Titans to suddenly appear anywhere on Earth. This is crucial to "Godzilla x Kong," but is also the entire plot of "King of the Monsters," as these portals allowed plenty of Titans to invade Earth, including Ghidorah, Rodan, and Mothra — the first and last of these dying during the events of the film, leaving Godzilla as the reigning Titan.
The Iwi and Skull Island
During "Godzilla: King of the Monsters," we learn that a storm created and controlled by King Ghidorah sunk the entire Skull Island to the bottom of the sea — Atlantis style. This left Kong homeless in addition to being an orphan, which plays into his loneliness and longing in the new "Godzilla x Kong" as he is the only one of his kind — though we know there are other giant apes playing a role in the film somehow.
The sinking of Skull Island also meant the death of the entire Iwi people, who inhabited the island and cohabitated with Kong, worshipping him as a god. The only survivor is a young girl named Jia (Kaylee Hottle), who lives with her adopted mother, Dr. Ilene Andrews (both of whom return for the new film). Jia can communicate with Kong via sign language and seems to have a special connection to the Titans.
The team
The previous movie in the franchise, "Godzilla vs Kong," follows a new Monarch team led by Kong expert Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall), a sort of Jane Goodall for Kong. She inadvertently ends up teaming up with Titan conspiracy podcaster and blogger Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry) when he discovers sinister activities at his place of employment, Apex Cybernetics (the origins of which were revealed in "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters").
The two end up going to the Hollow Earth and get involved in the fight between Godzilla, Kong, and Mechagodzilla. Thanks to the help of Andrews, Jia, and Hayes, Mechagodzilla is destroyed by the budding Titans, and Monarch decides to establish an outpost in the Hollow Earth to monitor Titans. Godzilla and Kong decide to call it a truce, and the giant ape goes to Hollow Earth to rule over it while the King of Monsters watches over the surface.