Godz And Monsters

The alpha predator returns in GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS, and this time he's facing a triple threat of iconic foes. As classic Titans Mothra, Rodan and King Ghidorah enter the fray, Total Film finds out how the bigger, bolder sequel is honouring the legacy while breaking new ground with the MonsterVerse cinematic universe.

- Matt Maytum

Exhausted’ is probably the best word to describe it.” Total Film is catching up with director Michael Dougherty as he goes through the final quality-control stages on Godzilla: King Of The Monsters. The picture is locked, but there are various international and home entertainment versions that need signing off. It’s been a long road to this point, so ‘exhausted’ seems fair. “I feel like I’ve been fighting these monsters for three years!” Dougherty laughs.

Not that this fatigue has done anything to quell Dougherty’s irrepressible enthusiasm. A self-confessed Godzilla fanboy, this is a sacred gig for him, and by far the biggest directing job he has yet tackled: his earlier films include Krampus and ace horror anthology Trick ’R Treat, and he has blockbuster previous in scriptwriting X2 and Superman Returns. But Godzilla: King Of The Monsters is an altogether different beast.

Indeed, it’s rare for a VFX-heavy blockbuster of this scale to be ready months ahead of its release date, but King Of The Monsters isn’t just a sequel to 2014’s Godzilla, it’s a pivotal piece in a bigger shared ‘MonsterVerse’ that also includes Kong: Skull Island, and is building to a showdown between Godzilla and Kong in 2020. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet. Godzilla has three equally iconic monsters to contend with before then.

Godzilla: King Of The Monsters introduces a trio of new but familiar Titans to the mix: Rodan, a pteranodon-like winged firebird; King Ghidorah, a three-headed dragon-esque beast; and Mothra, a, well, moth-kaiju that you wouldn’t want to find fluttering outside your bathroom window at night.