‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ Director Adam Wingard on Similarities to ‘Batman v Superman'

Let them fight, but introduce them first!

It's hard to contain my excitement when it comes to Godzilla vs. Kong. We get so few event movies now, and I'll certainly be on the edge of my couch watching since theaters aren't the best option for me right now. Still, I cannot wait to see these two giants fight. 

One thing we forget about when movies like this come along is the immense planning that goes into making them a reality. For this movie to exist, it didn't just take Warner Bros. and Legendary making a plan over a decade ago, but individual artists across generations coming up with their own concepts and designs and stories. 

This movie truly is the summation of all the parts that make up both Godzilla and Kong. 

The film's director, Adam Wingard, recently sat down with Collider to talk about the movie. The thing that struck me most about the conversation was how aware Wingard is that he's not only responsible for the culmination of Godzillas and Kongs, but that he's in the shadow of them too. 

For all intents and purposes, these are literal big shoes to fill.  

We've seen people try to fill those shoes before. Most recently, it was the fight between Batman and Superman. One of Wingard's major hurdles was looking at the failures there and making sure he avoided them here. 

He told Collider, "... And you flash forward in time, and I look at, for instance, Batman v Superman to use it as an example, and this is just my opinion, but my issue with that movie is really that it's a new Batman. It's Ben Affleck as Batman. And up until then, Christian Bale was the definitive Batman, and so it felt like, okay, now that we're doing Batman versus Superman, we're also restarting Batman. So this feels like a different universe, which it is, and so this is a different Batman. So it doesn't have that kind of like—this is the ultimate match-up of these characters. There's something off about it, and going into this movie, I didn't want that feeling. Normally Legendary would allow the directors to put their spin on Godzilla, and I could've changed them. I like how Dougherty updated them with the classic maple leaves on his back. But for me, I wanted this to feel like the Godzilla that we've been used to for the last few movies, and I wanted Kong to feel like the Kong that we had in Skull Island, so that when they fought it really felt like this was really them going at each other."

This is an interesting look at how his job on the set wasn't just to make the best movie possible, but to help directly align all the visions before him into something the audience could digest and understand. In this way, he could take these beasts after they had been introduced and make something that not only offers a new introduction to who they are in this movie, but fulfills the stories promised in the others. 

When it comes to picking a favorite in the fight, Wingard had an idea he wasn't keen on sharing, saying, "You know, 'favorite' is a strong word, but I will say that I definitely knew who I wanted to win right off the bat. I remember in second grade there was a friend of mine who had a definitive idea of who he thought would win in a fight, Godzilla or King Kong, and I remember being on the playground and arguing with him about it, and I felt like he was totally wrong. And so in a weird roundabout way, this movie is like the most ridiculous way of winning a fight with a friend of yours in second grade. But now I finally have the last word. And he can't argue."

Are you excited for Godzilla vs. Kong? Got any predictions? Let us know in the comments.