Heading to HBO Max next month, Godzilla Vs Kong is shaping up to be a true battle of the titans, with the trailers for the movie showing the two iconic behemoths slugging it out in multiple fight sequences. Recently, a new trailer was released for the film which added a new dimension to the character of Kong, who has had only one prior movie to establish his character in Legendary’s MonsterVerse franchise, unlike Godzilla, who has had two.
In the new trailer, Kong is seen interacting with a human child using sign language. The scene is clearly inspired by real-life gorilla sign language, and a character in the movie expresses amazement at finding out the giant ape can talk in such a manner. In a previous interview with Collider, Godzilla vs. Kong director Adam Wingard had explained how Kong’s ability to express thoughts and emotions will be used in the film.
“Kong for instance, as almost like a human conduit, like we can actually cut to Kong in this movie without having to cut back to the human characters for relatively large chunks of the film, because we can experience things through him. He’s emotive and all these kinds of things like his eyes, and the way he experiences things is relatable, and so it allows us to be able to just treat him just like any other character, and the humans are always going to back that up.”
While earlier movies in the MonsterVerse showed all the giant creatures, from Kong to Godzilla, to King Ghidorah, as forces of nature that are far beyond the understanding of ordinary humans, it seems Godzilla vs. Kong will go a long way towards humanizing Kong. According to Wingard, the giant ape’s relationship with the human child named Jia will be a callback to previous movies where a monstrous creature finds companionship with an innocent.
“With Kong, for instance, like we have a character in Jia who can directly communicate with him, and has sort of a spiritual bond with him, and that’s a really interesting thing to be able to play with that these movies haven’t done, but it’s still sort of a… It’s almost a trope, you know, like the little girl that can communicate, or child that can communicate with this larger force and being able to play with them.”
While the trailer for GvK has taken great pains to humanize Kong, it seems to be trying equally hard to set Godzilla up as the villain, explaining that the giant lizard has started attacking cities for no reason, which is why Kong is brought in to stop its rampage. And that sets up the biggest matchup in monster movie history.
Directed by Adam Wingard and written by Eric Pearson and Max Borenstein, Godzilla vs. Kong stars Alexander Skarsgard, Millie Bobby Brown, Rebecca Hall, and Brian Tyree Henry. The film arrives in theaters and on HBO Max on March 31. The director’s comments came from Collider.