How and Why Legendary May Do a Humanless MonsterVerse Movie.

Gojirafan2013

For the past two years, I’ve believed the chances of Legendary doing a humanless MonsterVerse movie were slim to none, as it would not only be too expensive, but wouldn’t be a guaranteed hit with general audiences. For the latter reason, I believed that general audiences wouldn’t be interested in watching Godzilla or any of the other Titans do monster-related stuff for two and half hours.

But after thinking about this for the past few weeks, I’ve come to believe that there may be a better chance of us getting a humanless MonsterVerse movie than I originally thought.

For starters, a lot of casual moviegoers, ever since G14, have criticized the MonsterVerse movies for having bland, two dimensional human characters that get in the way of the monster action. A lot of people only watch Kaiju movies for the monsters. So I imagine there’s a lot of people who’d want the movies to focus less on the human characters.

Second, ever since G14, the MonsterVerse movies have focused more and more on fantastical storytelling and the spectacle of the monsters fighting each other. With each movie, not only have the monsters gotten more and more screentime, they have also become more well rounded and personified. This especially holds true for Godzilla vs. Kong, where Godzilla and Kong are in the spotlight while the humans’ main purpose is to serve the story and develop them as characters.

Third, as a monster, Kong is anthropomorphic and relatable, making him able to carry long scenes by himself without a lot of human screentime. He’s also able to communicate with humanity via sign language.

Fourth, the people at Legendary have expressed interest in telling a story with very little or no human involvement. All the way back in 2019, Micheal Dougherty expressed his interest in directing a movie set in an age where humans and Titans coexisted with each other. Last year, Adam Wingard said he believes that if the MonsterVerse continues to be successful, it could eventually get to a point where the movies wouldn’t need to have human characters, as the monsters would be well rounded characters that could hold their own by that point. Max Borenstein, echoing Micheal Dougherty’s interest in a Godzilla: BC movie, has also gone on record saying that he wants to see Legendary make a movie that takes place in the ancient past without human characters involved.

The point that I’m making is that while I still believe the chances of Legendary making a MonsterVerse movie without human characters are small, I’d say that the chances of seeing one have gone up a little bit. To put things into perspective, two years ago, I would’ve believed the chances were like 0-20%. But now, I’d say they are 30-40%.

Even though the budget for a humanless MonsterVerse would be extremely high (I’m talking $400+ million), Legendary may decide to just take a gamble and see how it plays out. If, let’s say, the next solo Kong film with 50% human screentime is successful, maybe they’ll make another Kong film with 30% human screentime. Then, if the third Kong film is successful, perhaps they’ll take a gamble by making a fourth one with no humans at all. If Kong proves himself able to carry a large portion of a future movie, then he *might* have a shot at starring in a movie with no humans. But nothing is guaranteed.

TLDR: I believe the chances of Legendary making a humanless MonsterVerse movie are a bit higher now thanks to the general audience’s reception of the human characters in each MonsterVerse movie, the people at Legendary voicing their interest in telling monster-centric stories in the future, and Kong being relatable enough to carry scenes by himself in GVK. If we ever get a movie without humans, it’ll most likely be Kong-centric as he’s human enough to possibly carry a film on his own.

SasquaDash

I could see them easily doing one with Kong or his species, since they are extremely human-like and very expressive (plus in my opinion, the scenes that focused on Kong were some of the highlights in GvK). They could also make it feel like a docu-series similar to the Walking With series. 

Gojirafan2013

@SasquaDash: Definitely. If they decide to explore the war that was fought between the Kong and Godzilla species in a future film, maybe they’ll explore it through the perspective of Godzilla and Kong’s ancestors, and the humans can just be side characters.

I will say though, that doing something like this would carry a lot of financial risk behind it. Like I said in my post above, to do a movie with an all monster cast would cost a ****load of money, and when you consider that the MonsterVerse hasn’t been the most profitable film franchise so far, to save themselves from a potential box office flop, perhaps Legendary will do it on a smaller and cheaper platform like animation or live action streaming. Or maybe they’ll decide to just take the risk if they feel that there’s enough interest. 

What’s your take?

SasquaDash

Jack Capellini 

They could do a live action streaming mini series that's somewhat similar to the upcoming Prehistoric Planet (which, like the upcoming Godzilla/Monarch series, is set to be on Apple TV+). They could mostly do live action with most of the CGI effects being the Titans (if it's set in the past, they wouldn't have to worry about making big city destruction scenes) which could help with the budget of the series. I think the best direction for the MonsterVerse would be exploring the history of the Titans in the past.

Djdndnejwnwn

Honestly I'd rather nor have a godzilla in the past, or in a do***entary style, because it completely seperates him frommany themes that could surround him

Being a balance of nature is when Humans wreck everything, from everything in Mv with janjira to Mechagodzilla, to 1954

sonictiger

Tbh this is a bit of a hard one to think about for me.

g-man fan

I think a no human kong movie might do good but a no human Godzilla movie not so much

sonictiger

Alternative for Godzilla: Millie Bobby Brown is the only human character (and 1-2 more teens as well.)

Djdndnejwnwn

Honestly in KoTM it would have been a more interesting narrative choice if Madison died instead of Emma

Xenotaris

How about we compromise, they should do a movie where neolithic humans interact with the kaiju

sonictiger

Boom, that's a better idea Xenotaris.

Also what the actual heck HinikunaGoji??? But it honestly may have been better if every major character died in KOTM, so we didn't have the Russells at all in GVK.

Djdndnejwnwn

sonictiger

well for one thing it would have made a darker tone and given more realistic consequences of MarK and Emmas choices. Both pushing Madison away. Two it would have made Emma more interesting and given her way more of a reason to feel bad. 

The whole family thing in kotm very focused on the parents, and it would have set up a more interesting story for GvK if they bith had to come to terms that what they did killed theyre last child. 

Or maybe not even killed would be right either. Madison could have just been seriously hurt or put in a coma and it would have the same effect. Or it could drive her away from both parents.

Its just that in GvK there was not family trouble that much, which should have carried over. Admittedly it was tried but they took way too much focus from the people who could have been really compelling main characters.

Xenotaris

ah like a consequence of bad parenting, I neither liked Mark nor Emma; Madison was okay. In all honesty I preferred the Brodys over the Russels.

sonictiger

I prefer Ford for the Brodys, and Madison for the Russells.  I've said it before, Sam could very well be Madison's age.  And I'd like to see them come together from their shared experiences.  Also, I have solved the human character problem of the MonsterVerse.  It's that they need to get the writers of Pacific Rim instead.  Since that movie has actually endearing characters, like Raleigh, Mako, and Stacker.

Djdndnejwnwn

sonictiger

I honestly like most of the plot in Kotm and semi plot in GvK but they feel like middle drafts

sonictiger

Again, Pacific Rim was fully realized.

Djdndnejwnwn

sonictiger

what about Pacific rim 2?

sonictiger

Not watching it.

sonictiger

Not watching it.

sonictiger

Point is, the first Pacific Rim is kinda better than all of the MV movies.

Djdndnejwnwn

sonictiger

I disagree, KSI and 14' are some of my favorites

sonictiger

That's ok.  I kinda have GVK close to PR.

Xenotaris

Godzilla 2014 is the best MonsterVerse Movie and one of the best Godzilla movies alongside Godzilla 1954