The stars of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire aren’t the humans – director, actors on sharing the screen with monsters

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, the sequel to Godzilla vs. Kong, contains long sequences of dialogue-free storytelling focused only on the monsters

Director Adam Wingard reveals when he started to feel comfortable working on a CGI-heavy film; his cast share their thoughts on acting with the legendary beasts

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Godzilla, left, and Kong in a scene from Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. The titans are the stars of the movie, not the human actors, say cast members. They describe how they approached their roles in the film. Photo: AP

Published: 4:15am, 25 Mar 2024

There was no question who the stars were in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire – not Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Dan Stevens or any of the humans.

As actors have known since the early days of cinema, the star is the one with their character’s name in the title, even if in this case they never actually, technically, came to set.

“They are the stars of the movie,” says Hall. “We’re the scale.”

Or, as Stevens put it: “We’re just the sideshow.”

Rebecca Hall and Dan Stevens in a scene from Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Photo: AP

The film is a sequel to Godzilla vs. Kong, the 2021 showdown between the 393-foot (120-metre) Godzilla and 337-foot Kong. It is also a continuation of the cinematic MonsterVerse that goes back to 2014’s Godzilla and 2017’s Kong: Skull Island.

If there seems to be an inherent stakes issue of “where do you go after the versus”, for filmmaker Adam Wingard the path seemed clear. He heard the screams and cheers in the cinema when the giants battled Mechagodzilla together in Godzilla vs. Kong: for the sequel, he knew they needed to team up.