Warner Bros Planning Kong/Godzilla/Pacific Rim Crossover Universe?

A thunderous roar echoed through the internet this week when it was announced that Legendary Entertainment’s upcoming production ‘Kong: Skull Island’ is moving house from Universal to Warner Bros - with a view to setting up a new ‘King Kong Vs Godzilla’ movie.

Whilst the prospect of the two most iconic giant monsters in film history doing battle once again was more than enough to leave fans everywhere salivating, it seems this may only be the tip of the iceberg for Warners’ plans with their giant monster properties.

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A new report at Bloody Disgusting claims the stage is being set for a massive multi-franchise monster universe which, on top of King Kong and Godzilla, will also include the monsters-versus-robots future world of ‘Pacific Rim.’

While it is unclear where BD are getting their information from (no sources are cited), they report that Warner Bros’ plans for a multi-franchise giant monster universe look something like this (incorporating the two, at-present unrelated films that have been made to date):

Pacific Rim (2013; dir. Guillermo Del Toro)
Godzilla (2014; dir. Gareth Edwards)
King Kong: Skull Island (2017; dir. )
Pacific Rim II: Maelstrom (2017, dir. Guillermo Del Tor)
Godzilla II (2018; dir. Gareth Edwards)
King Kong vs. Godzilla (TBA)
Pacific Rim III (TBA)

As to just how the story worlds of these franchises will be reconciled, BD speculate that as ‘Skull Island’ is already said to be set in the 1970s, this may in effect serve as a ‘Godzilla’ prequel - and as such it might not be too great a stretch to see Kong return to that world in a contemporary setting.

Both films, meanwhile, might easily serve as prequels to the Kaiju-torn future world of ‘Pacific Rim.’ Kong and Godzilla might feasibly have some role to play in the first wave of Kaiju attacks briefly shown in the prologue sequence of Guillermo del Toro’s film - or alternatively, there are surely ways to bring the old monsters into the future.

Del Toro, for his part, his already admitted he’s more than open to bringing ‘Godzilla’ into the ‘Pacific Rim’ world, recently telling Moviepilot, “I would love to see a jaeger and Godzilla duke it out. That would be too much for the human brain.“

Even so, he stressed at the time that this idea was strictly hypothetical, and that no plans were in place for such a crossover. But taking into account Warner Bros’ ownership of all three monster franchises, and the current taste for crossover universes, it’s inconceivable that the idea hasn’t at least been suggested.

Now, if Bloody Disgusting are correct, the ball is indeed rolling on such a plan. They also report that Universal - by way of compensation for handing ‘Kong: Skull Island’ to Warner Bros - will get both ‘Kong’ and ‘Godzilla’ attractions in their theme parks.

‘Pacific Rim’ rides might also be a likelihood, as it’s claimed Universal may also get partial ownership of the Kaiju vs. Jaegers series through this deal.

With no official statements from Warner Bros, Universal of Legendary just yet, it remains to be seen just how on the level these claims are - so it’s best to treat them as a mere rumour for now. But if is indeed for real, we might have some truly epic big screen action to look forward to in the years ahead…

Picture Credit: Universal, Warner Bros