Adam Wingard Focuses on the Monsters

To paraphrase everyone’s favorite AMC Theaters spokesperson, “We come to kaiju films to see giant monsters beat each other up,” and “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” the fifth installment of Legendary’s MonsterVerse franchise, delivers the creature fights in spades. In this franchise, plot was always secondary to showcasing the gnarliest brawls CGI could muster and money could buy (with the possible exception of Apple TV+’s “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters”). Although the core cast of Dan Stevens, Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, and Kaylee Hottle have serviceable narrative arcs, the stars truly are the monsters. Director Adam Wingard understands this on a fundamental level, and for the first time in the franchise’s 10-year history, viewers are treated to long scenes solely focused on the monsters. From seeing where Godzilla sleeps (he’s taken a liking to the Colosseum) to witnessing Kong’s sushi preferences, we get to know these creatures as fleshed out characters instead of just icons. That was one of the intentional dynamics Wingard wanted to feature. Having helmed 2021’s “Godzilla vs. Kong,” he’s the only director to helm a second installment in the MonsterVerse franchise. “I had a completely different take on this movie than I did the last one,” he told RogerEbert.com via Zoom. “For the first time, we started experimenting with having these sequences where you weren’t just seeing the monsters from the human perspective but from the monster’s POV.” Despite an initially rocky start to our conversation due to some technical difficulties (it can only be chalked up to Hollow Earth interference) for our conversation, Wingard shared more about crafting the personality of the film’s kaiju, the surprising influences “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” had on some of the film’s wackier elements, and an alternative title he had toyed around with for the film. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. You’ve shared prior that the MonsterVerse was created to culminate with “Godzilla vs. Kong” and that the franchise was at a crossroads after its release. It is a different approach from say, the MCU, which maps out its films for what feels like decades in advance. What made you want to take the story in the direction you did with this latest film? Was it daunting because there were so many possibilities? It all really came down to the fans. At the end of “Godzilla vs. Kong” there’s that moment where Godzilla and Kong briefly team up against Mechagodzilla. And when I watched it with a crowd, as much fun as they had seeing Godzilla and Kong fight it out, they were all more excited to see them team up. That was the big “aha” moment. Before I had seen the crowd’s reaction, I probably would have thought “Okay it’s time to go back to solo films.” But it was clear that there’s more untapped stories to be told between Godzilla and Kong. I don’t think audiences were ready to split them up just yet. What’s exciting about them as characters, though, is that the team-up won’t be straightforward. They're territorial monsters. Godzilla controls the surface and is very strict in how he sees the world. In many respects, he represents the white blood cells of the earth. His job is to protect the surface of the world. That’s true. Even though Kong and Godzilla worked together prior, their team-up wasn’t a given. I took a lot of influence from movies like “They Live.” What I liked about “They Live” was that its best sequences aren’t about the villain versus the hero; it’s about two heroes fighting each other over a misunderstanding. I wanted to have that dynamic again in this film. It speaks to how you’ve imbued these creatures with such personality and attitude. One of my favorite scenes was when Kong knocks out [the villain] Skar King’s tooth and then he points to his own replacement tooth to gloat. What went into crafting Godzilla’s and Kong’s personalities and fully realizing them as characters? It all started with my experience of watching the Shōwa era of “Godzilla” films on daytime television when I was growing up in the early eighties. Those were the films that first made an impression on me in terms of Godzilla. I remember being engaged with just relational dynamics between the monsters. There are all of these alliances Godzilla makes. He starts out fighting Anguirus but then they become buddies. I also always loved Godzilla’s relationship with Mothra. Those dynamics are the kind of things that I carried over into this. I was so excited about doing another one of the MonsterVerse films for that reason. I had a completely different take on this movie than I did the last one. “Godzilla vs. Kong,” was the first movie that I made that was very visual effects heavy. I learned not only what was achievable but also what I really enjoyed watching.   With “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” for the first time, we started experimenting with having these sequences where you weren’t just seeing the monsters from the