'Godzilla: King Of The Monsters' Will Put The "God" Back In Godzilla [WonderCon 2019]

Warner Bros./New Line highlighted three of its upcoming films during their panel this Saturday at WonderCon in Anaheim, California. While the new trailer for Annabelle Comes Home debuted and footage from Shazam was screened, the real treat came from the section dedicated to the upcoming Godzilla: King of the Monsters.

Moderator Chuey Martinez kicked off the panel by revealing a new trailer for Annabelle Comes Home, the third installment in The Conjuring spin-off that revolves around the insanely creepy doll, Annabelle, who this time appears to be terrorizing a young Mckenna Grace.

After the Annabelle Comes Home trailer, Martinez welcomed co-writer/producer Zach Shields and co-writer/director Michael Dougherty on stage to share a sneak peak of their upcoming film, Godzilla: King of the Monsters.After a brief chat with Martinez, Dougherty asked the audience if they wanted to see "something special," and introduced a five-minute scene from the movie. While the clip had some shots of the human actors in the film (Millie Bobby Brown, Vera Farmiga, Bradley Whitford and Kyle Chandler all made brief appearances in the footage), the larger-than-life creatures (as they should) got most of the screen time. The creature that was the star of this clip, however, was the three-headed dragon, Ghidorah, who slowly and magnificently rises out of the bowels of an ice-encrusted volcano, and turns each of its three, fire-breathing heads onto the meek humans who woke it. The clip also showed Godzilla tromping through the ice and snow to face Ghidorah, as well as a brief image of Mothra flying over a destroyed city.If this footage is any indication, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, is all about, well, the monsters. During the Q&A after the viewing, Dougherty and Shields expanded on their vision for bringing these monsters to life. "We wanted to portray the creatures not just as giant animals but as something that you would bend the knee to if you saw them in real life," Dougherty explained. "That's how I always saw them growing up...as ancient deities."This effort to emphasize their god-like status is obvious in the clip they shared with the audience, which included the scene of Ghidorah on top of the volcano, a scene that Dougherty revealed was inspired by the Book of Revelations. "The whole goal of this film for us, is to put the 'God' back in Godzilla," Dougherty explained. "That shot [of Ghidorah on the volcano] perfectly encompasses that intent."The co-writers also said that the movie will "tip the hat" to King Kong (Godzilla vs. Kong, directed by Adam Wingard, is already in production), and that the creatures' bone-trembling roars, growls and screeches were meticulously created, and incorporated sounds from living wild animals such as rattlesnakes, vultures and owls.The Godzilla section of the panel ended on a philosophical note, with the Dougherty reflecting on whether you can call Godzilla good or evil. "You're trying to apply human morality to an ancient god," Dougherty said. "I just don't think that you can or should do that. Godzilla decides on a given day what he wants to do. He's a force of nature. But I think the bigger question is are we the good guys or bad guys? That will determine how he reacts to us."Based on what we know so far about Godzilla: King of the Monsters, it seems that Godzilla isn't too happy with the human race at the moment. Fans will have to wait to see the full movie, however, to see how things turn out.

The Warner Bros/New Line panel ended with Shazam, with director David F. Sandberg along with actors Zachary Levi (Shazam), Mark Strong (Dr. Thaddeus Sivana), Jack Dylan Glazer (Freddy Freeman), and Asher Angel (Billy Batson) on stage to take questions from the audience. After a lengthy Q&A where the most common answer was, "You have to see the movie to find out!", the panel closed out with an extended scene from the film, where Shazam and Freddy Freeman test out the extent of Shazam's new superhero powers (Spoiler alert: he's bullet proof, can shoot lightning from his fingers, and, after many efforts, he finds out he can fly).Shazam will fly into theaters worldwide on April 5, while Godzilla: King of Monsters will roar onto screens May 31. Annabelle Comes Home comes out June 28.