Five Things We Know About Godzilla vs. Kong, and One Thing We Don't

With the first round of casting announcements for Godzilla vs. Kong finally here, I figured it’s time to recap the morsels of information we’ve been provided so far and speculate on what they might mean. In listicle form!

Mako Mori's Death by Committee

Before Legendary Pictures released Pacific Rim Uprising, I joked to my friends that I would walk out of the theater if Mako Mori died. Well, I wussed out when that horrible moment came, but know this: I walked out in spirit. When Mako’s helicopter went down, my hopes of enjoying the long-gestating sequel to one of my favorite movies fell with it. Even in a story full of baffling decisions, it was conspicuous.

Here was one of the breakout characters of Pacific Rim (and arguably its central protagonist), a fiery but filial mechanic and co-pilot of a giant, sword-swinging mech. In the increasingly crowded field of 2010s action heroines, she still stands tall. You’d have to be possessed by a Precursor to kill her off in the first act just for a lead-in to the next action scene and a fleeting moment of sadness for her brother. Who among the movie’s higher-ups was so afflicted? And did she get booted out of Scrapper’s cockpit at the end so Jing Tian could steal the spotlight?

Designing Ready Player One's Mechagodzilla

Most of the licensed characters in Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One are computer-generated extras, showing up in a shot or two without comment. One of the biggest exceptions, both literally and figuratively, is Mechagodzilla, who corporate baddie Nolan Sorrento pilots in the final battle. It takes on the Iron Giant and a RX-78-2 Gundam in grand fashion, spewing blue flames and launching finger missiles as Alan Silvestri’s fantastic Ifukube cover blares.

Mechagodzilla also stands out because it has an all-new appearance, in contrast to every other licensed character in the film. If you guessed notoriously-fickle Toho had something to do with that, you’d be right. After a piece of concept art bearing his signature started making the rounds online, Toho Kingdom staff member Joshua Sudomerski contacted Jared Krichevsky to ask about the process of creating the latest version of the magnificent machine. Read what he learned after the jump.

King Ghidorah to be a Mo-Cap Triple Threat?

Godzilla: King of the Monsters director Michael Dougherty loves practical effects. Look no further than Krampus, which eschewed CGI for nearly all its holiday horrors, for a display of his devotion to the old ways. Godzilla is a different beast, however, and it remains unclear how much Dougherty has been able to do in-camera while making his first blockbuster film. So here’s some promising news from TheWrap: King Ghidorah will be portrayed by a motion-capture team including Jason Liles, last seen as the albino gorilla George in Rampage.