Godzilla vs Kong Director Reveals One Of Toho’s Franchise Rules He Had To Follow

Godzilla vs Kong director Adam Wingard says there is one rule he had to follow from Toho regarding his portrayal of Godzilla. Legendary’s MonsterVerse may have reintroduced the iconic Kaiju to a new generation of fans, but Godzilla has been terrorizing cityscapes for decades. One of the longest-running film franchises of all time, Godzilla has appeared in films since 1954, thanks to Japanese production company Toho. There have been 32 Japanese Godzilla films, with Legendary and Warner Bros. being relatively new to the franchise.

Godzilla was reintroduced to American audiences with the Gareth Edwards 2014 film after the 1998 Roland Emmerich directed Godzilla was widely considered a colossal misfire.  Godzilla kicked off Legendary’s MonsterVerse, with follow-up films Kong: Skull Island bringing the iconic ape into the universe and Godzilla: King of the Monsters introducing even more kaiju to American audiences. Godzilla vs Kong is the culmination of seven years of storytelling, and while Wingard is new to the franchise, there were certain things he could not mess with.

The Godzilla vs Kong director revealed to the Reelblend podcast that Toho had one specific rule he had to follow when it came to the characterization of Gojira. While Wingard says the studio was willing to compromise on some things, they were adamant that Godzilla not be too emotive in the new movie. Toho sees this as out of character for the “god-like force of nature” and didn’t want Wingard to make Godzilla too emotional in reaction to the epic battles in the film.

One of them, for instance, is (that) they don’t want Godzilla to emote. They see him as like this god-like force of nature, and so to them, it’s out of character if you have him reacting in a normal way to things. But, there’s always ways around it. We definitely have some moments where I think Godzilla is more emotive in this film than he has been in any of the MonsterVerse movies. We just had to get clever with it. And I think that sometimes that stuff is kind of presented to you in a very kind of brick-wall kind of way. But if you just do certain things, and present it to them just right, and if they’re on board with the movie, they seem to give us plenty of leeway.

Hollywood has long been in the business of adapting non-Western franchises to cash in on their popularity, regardless of whether the original creators want it to happen. It’s nice to hear that Wingard, WB, and Legendary have worked closely with Toho to adapt the iconic character accurately. Respecting the original creator’s vision is an all too often overlooked element of Western remakes and adaptations, but Godzilla is too big of a character to mess with.

Putting him up against Kong isn’t unprecedented, but the last time the pair were on screen together was in 1962’s King Kong vs Godzilla. In the decades since, both characters have gone through several new iterations but always stayed true to their core nature. With Godzilla vs Kong finally released in theaters and on HBO Max, fans can see the two Titans go head-to-head once again and rest easy knowing that the characters were treated with the utmost respect regarding their creator’s wishes.

Source: Reelblend podcast

About The Author

Graeme Guttmann
(1228 Articles Published)

Graeme Guttmann is an editor, writer, and interviewer for Screen Rant. With a love for all things pop culture, he watches just about everything from the biggest blockbusters to reality shows like Real Housewives. He currently resides in Boston, MA where he is an MFA candidate at Emerson College for creative writing. You can follow him on Twitter @cryptograeme for pop culture commentary and random musings about pop music and just about anything else.

More From Graeme Guttmann