This was originally planned for next week, but since KONG: SKULL ISLAND doesn't come out until Friday (Thursday for some of you early viewers) I may as well get this discussion going. What I want to discuss is the future of King Kong movies.
With Warner Bros confirming Godzilla and King Kong being part of their Monster-verse (a series of monster movies that take place in the same universe) and that a KING KONG VS. GODZILLA remake is in the works for a 2020 release, it has made a lot of people wonder what there will be after that. People are wondering if KING KONG VS. GODZILLA will be Godzilla 3 or if there is really going to be a different Godzilla movie that will be considered as the third movie. The same with King Kong. There are so many ways they can go with Kong in this new series. My speculation for the future of Kong movies is that once KING KONG VS. GODZILLA is released, that will be it. No more Kong movies for a while until some other movie company decides to reboot Kong again. My reason for this is that KING KONG VS GODZILLA is the main event that fans have been waiting for years to see a rematch happen. This is going to be THE AVENGERS of the series, unless it pulls a Batman V Superman. The only way to top that is if they did a DESTROY ALL MONSTERS movie with both Kong and Godzilla in it, but by then the rights to Godzilla would have already expired. For how I see it, we would have to wait another 10+ years before Hollywood decides to bring Kong back to the big screen. This is so then the air is cleared from Legendary's KING KONG VS. GODZILLA and calmed down enough to start the hype all over again. The larger the hype, the more money it makes.
Another reason is that based on how Kong movies through out the years they tend to end in a duology (a series of 2 movies) most of the time, with the 2005 movie being the exception. If we consider the upcoming KING KONG VS. GODZILLA movie as part of the Godzilla's trilogy in WB's/Legendary's series, then the same can be applied for Kong in a duology. If Kong ever gets rebooted again, I would like them to set him up in a Destroy All Monsters-esque movie with American monsters only. Put him up against the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park. Or perhaps throw in the Frankenstein monster that Kong was originally going to fight. That would be a cool call back to Willis O'Brien's original idea before it became King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962). A full out Universal monster war where one will stand and many will fall. That's my dream movie anyways.
If Warner Bros. and Legendary do decide to do a SKULL ISLAND 2 or some other movie that will include Kong in it, then great. I will be happy to at least know that I was wrong. I will even type up a blog post about how wrong I was if it ever gets announced. For now, I really don't see anything else happening for Kong.
What are your thoughts on the future of Kong movies? Do you think there is still room for a sequel to KONG: SKULL ISLAND? If so, what would you like them to explore? What other possibilities are there for Kong? Stay tuned for my review of KONG: SKULL ISLAND!