‘Godzilla X Kong’ Director Compares Monster Film To An ’80s Buddy-Cop Movie Like ‘Lethal Weapon’

Let’s be real, perhaps the worst thing to happen before the upcoming “Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire” is the release of “Godzilla Minus One.” That film proved that you can take the kaiju genre seriously and have incredible results, with a ton of people including it among the very best films released last year. And now, we have ‘Godzilla X Kong,’ which is the latest in the MonsterVerse franchise which sacrifices quality story for lots of big explosions and monster battles. It’s the opposite of ‘Minus One.’ And when you hear filmmaker Adam Wingard explain it, the upcoming ‘New Empire’ might have more in common with “Lethal Weapon” than last year’s wonderful ‘Godzilla’ film.

READ MORE: Bong Joon Ho’s ‘Mickey 17’ Is Pulled From WB’s Schedule In March & Replaced With ‘Godzilla X Kong’

Speaking to Empire, Adam Wingard talked about the dynamic at the heart of “Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire,” which is the relationship between the two title characters. After they fought in the previous film, now they are somewhat of teammates taking on a bigger threat. 

“There’s a bit of a truce — Godzilla’s in control of the surface world and Kong is down in Hollow Earth,” said the director. “It wasn’t, ‘Okay, give me a call when something goes wrong, Kong. And I, Godzilla, will rush to the rescue!’” 

The result of this “truce” is a bit of a complicated relationship, something the director compares to a ‘80s buddy-cop film a la “Lethal Weapon.” That’s right, we’re getting buddy-cop Godzilla and Kong. Which one is too old for this shit? We’ll have to watch and find out.

READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2024

“The buddy-cop dysfunctional relationship dynamic is probably the best one to describe Godzilla and Kong,” Wingard explained. “My influences are always embedded with the ‘80s, and the ‘80s were prime for [that] storyline.” 

He added, “There’s a lot of misunderstanding – the way that the monsters communicate isn’t straightforward.”

Honestly, given what is seen in the trailer, which looks like a bunch of bright-colored, big dumb monster battles, you probably could make them a monsterized version of Riggs and Murtaugh and it would be kinda awesome. Obviously, there’s a language barrier, but perhaps, it could work. 

Of course, whenever we listen to directors compare their big tentpole action film to some other genre, it is taken with a grain of salt. Do we honestly believe Godzilla and Kong are going to fall in the buddy-cop tropes? No. It’s probably nothing more than the most shallow of comparisons. That said, it is fun to imagine.