First announced in October 2015, Godzilla vs. Kong has been in the works for some time. Forming a shared cinematic universe between 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters and 2017’s Kong: Skull Island, the film will see the two skyscraper sized titans battle it out, for currently unknown reasons. Filmed in November 2018, the movie was set to be released in November 2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, following Warner Bros’ recent announcement that all of their 2021 slate of films will be partially released on the HBO Max streaming service, Godzilla Vs. Kong gained a new released date: March 26, 2021, less than two months away.
Warner Bros. has just given fans their first proper look at the film, in the form of a trailer released on January 24, 2021. Although the vast majority reacted warmly to this brief glimpse at the movie, praising its visuals and lack-of-spoilers (although criticizing its cliché choice of song), a few fans reacted differently – to them, Godzilla vs. Kong looks exactly like 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Also released by Warner Bros., it’s clear why some could innately find surface-level similarity between Batman v Superman and Godzilla vs. Kong: both films center around two hugely popular and powerful pop culture icons fighting in live-action for the first-ever time. However, following the release of the trailer, some more parallels between the two films have emerged, leading some enthusiasts to question whether these similarities are coincidence or not.
For one thing, the rough structure of the two films looks to be largely the same; the two title characters will battle it out for the majority of the film, before reconciling and uniting to fight a new enemy in the climactic third act. In Batman v Superman, this was the scientifically reanimated body of General Zod (the main antagonist from 2013’s Man of Steel), made to resemble the comics villain Doomsday. Equally, if the leaks are to be trusted, Godzilla and Kong will unite to fight Mecha-Godzilla/King Ghidorah (the main antagonist from Godzilla: King of the Monsters), at the end of their film.
In fact, clues hinting towards this plot point are fairly obvious. In the post-credits scene of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Jonah (the human antagonist of the film) purchases the severed left-over head of the defeated Ghidorah, suggesting that they will use this appendage and some technological supplements to create a giant titan cyborg. Moreover, eagle-eyed viewers will have noticed that, at 1:42 in the recent trailer, there is a screen showing “SYSTEM CHARGED” and what looks to be the outline of a robotic Godzilla. It would seem the reanimated appearance of Mecha-Godzilla/Ghidorah is inevitable, echoing the arrival of Doomsday in Batman v Superman.
Additionally, the dynamic between Superman/Batman and Godzilla/Kong is surprisingly similar. For example, one has superpowers (Superman has flight, strength, and laser eyes, and Godzilla has his atomic breath and nuclear resistance) and the other has gadgets (Batman has his utility belt, and Kong has that giant axe). In the trailer, they also allude to a mutual dislike between Godzilla and Kong, stemming from how one is ‘different’ to the other, echoing how Batman initially disliked Superman’s all-powerful alien presence.
If that wasn’t enough, there are also a litany of smaller parallels. From the presence of an underpowered civilian who is the heroes’ connection to the human world (Lois Lane to Superman, and the native girl to Kong), to abject destruction of a city during the titular fight, to even the US government being overly involved for some reason. Who knows: perhaps Gal Gadot will appear out of nowhere as Wonder Woman in Godzilla vs. Kong, and cement the similarities even further.
Of course, with this degree of creative parallels, many have been wondering how these similarities can even occur. Whilst some of it can, of course, be attributed to classic storytelling structures (Batman v Superman wasn’t the first film to ever feature battling heroes uniting against a common threat – it’s not even the first superhero film to do so, just look at 2007’s Spider-Man 3), perhaps some of it can be due to Warner Bros. influence. Batman v Superman was released during Godzilla vs Kong’s pre-production period so, consciously or not, perhaps the producers at Warner Bros. pushed for many of the same story elements to be present.
Moreover, just because these films share similarities doesn’t intrinsically mean they’ll share the same fate. Batman v Superman was a critical disappointment but a commercial success, achieving 28% on Rotten Tomatoes but earning $860m at the worldwide box-office. Alternatively, while Godzilla vs. Kong looks poised to do well critically (delivering the same high-value Kaiju battles as the previous installments in its cinematic universe), due to the debilitating effect of COVID-19, the film is very unlikely to do well commercially. Either way, in two months’ time, audiences can judge for themselves just how similar Batman v Superman and Godzilla vs. Kong actually are.
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