Well well well! It looks like Legendary Entertainment will be making an appearance at SDCC this year! According to the convention's schedule, the panel for Legendary will be at Hall-H on Saturday, July 22nd! So now comes the next question everyone will be asking. What should we expect at this panel?
We can, for one, expect MONARCH: Legacy of Monsters to make an appearance with a preview! The show that was being produced for Apple TV+ has wrapped up filming for some time. The show takes place after the events of Godzilla (2014) when a Japanese family suspects one of their own to be a member of the secretive organization called Monarch, which seeks to research Godzilla and contain monsters called Titans.
Apparently, this show is supposed to have some connection with the upcoming fifth film Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, which releases March 15, 2024. With that in mind, we should expect MONARCH to release on Apple TV+ pretty soon. It is still July, but Summer is getting close to an end. Once we get into the "BER" months starting with September, the year itself is practically over very quickly. We would be heading into Labor Day, then Halloween, then Thanksgiving, and suddenly Christmas is right around the corner. If Legendary wants this show released in the Summer then August will be the most likely month to release the show. Otherwise, it could be until Fall or Winter before we see this show.
On the other hand, since the show has a connection to the upcoming movie releasing the show around Fall or Winter may not be a bad thing. To release MONARCH in either season could lead into starting the marketing for the movie and while we are watching the show the wait for the movie's release would not feel as long. The hype-train for the next Monsterverse installment would still be running and trucking. It all comes down to IF the show is good. If the show flops in some way, we are going to have a serious problem with getting that hype built back up for the movie.
I will tell you over and over, I was not impressed with Legendary's animated Netflix show Skull Island. I did a review of it, but to make this long-story short: the show was the weakest entry in the Monsterverse. It did not even seem to try to connect it with the Monsterverse at all aside from a few key references that just seemed to be tossed in there randomly. Also, it is not just me saying the show was terrible. There is a majority of fans and general viewers that were not pleased with this show and did not do the Monsterverse any favors at all. So MONARCH is gonna have to pick up the slack and build that hype up again. If MONARCH comes out as a dud too, then it is going to be even harder to get people to watch Godzilla X Kong without that fear that the movie could turn out becoming a lame duck, as well. And that brings us to what we can expect next at the SDCC Legendary panel.
Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire releases next year and Legendary knows that fans are starved for new information on this movie. We got the teaser back in April, which revealed this movie's next big bad Titan that fans are calling "Orangukong." I will say, this monster design is really giving me call backs to the design used for King Kong in the 1963 movie King Kong vs Godzilla. The orange fur, the lanky arms, the electric blue eyes. It is just sort of nostalgic looking and reminding me of when King Kong got super charged by the lightning, which helped him defeat Godzilla in that movie. If the movie shows "Orangukong" throwing some thunder fists that will just make my head explode from excitement! That is why I think we will get a trailer of sorts. People are dying to know what is going on with this movie and SDCC is the perfect time for Legendary to lay their snakes on the table and lay them out flat for us. I can even see a small trailer reveal that gives us an idea about the movie's story and reveals the big bad villain, but it won't go into so much detail until the next trailer when we get closer to the movie's release date.
On top of that, director Guillermo del Toro has made an announcement on Twitter that he is planning something for the 10th anniversary of his "Mech vs Kaiju" action thriller Pacific Rim. The movie was released on July 14th, 2013 and it wound up doing pretty good making an overall total of $411 million in the global box-office. The movie's sequel, Pacific Rim: Uprising was not received as well and it had actually done poorly, but the Netflix anime series Pacific Rim: The Black was received very well despite the disadvantage of releasing a couple years after Uprising. What could this surprise be? Well, I can't answer that because it's a surprise and I don't really know either. It could be a brand new movie, or another TV show, or maybe Pacific Rim is getting rereleased in theaters. Whatever surprise del Toro has planned, SDCC is the perfect time to reveal it. Let's just hope that it is something good.
Last, but not least, Gamera: Rebirth is also confirmed to make an appearance at the convention in room 25ABC on July 23rd. Director Hiroyuki Seshita and Kan Takahama will be at the panel for a Special Release and Talk Show. We had learned about Guiron and Zigra appearing in the anime, but we have not really seen them in action yet. Also, there is still no release date as to when Gamera: Rebirth will premiere on Netflix. If anything, this is a good time to start giving us those details as to when this anime will release. Could we see the fifth and final monster get revealed at SDCC? Perhaps we will. We just have to wait and see. I have also been doing my "Gamerathon" in the process while we wait for the show's release. I have been releasing one review a week every Thursday and the next review coming up is Gamera vs Guiron. So make sure to tune in for that. You can follow me on my social media pages so you never have to miss out on a review.
What are your thoughts on Legendary Entertainment having a panel in Hall-H? Do you think we will get more info on Godzilla X Kong? Could we see a preview for MONARCH? What is your guess on what Guillermo del Toro has planned for Pacific Rim? Leave a comment in the comments section and make sure to follow me on Facebook, Minds, MeWe, Gab, and TRUTH Social to stay up to date for more news, reviews, and discussions.