So the rumor about the Godzilla TV series has already begun making the rounds and it has only been a week since the show was announced. These rumors are coming from people and sources that seem questionable (obviously). I see people posting a few different sources, but the one source that stayed consistent is a German Facebook page called Königreich der Monster.
To give this guy some background, he works in the movie industry and was the one who posted the leaked photos of the movie sets and props. He had several sources on every set since 2014. So in terms of reliability, KdM is as reliable as it gets to getting info on the production of these Monsterverse projects outside of Legendary. So we got to talking about the rumors with me asking which ones were true or false. This what I gathered and my thoughts on them.
The first rumor to be reported is the show’s title being called "Hourglass." This was first reported by Murphy’s Multiverse, which also reported other details such as beginning production in May, cameras would wrap up by the end of October/beginning November, and filming locations would be in Vancouver, Tokyo, and Hawaii.
According to KdM, Hourglass turns out to be a real title, but it’s not the title of the show. This is only the show’s working title. It’s a placeholder until the show has a real title. This is very common for movies and shows to have placeholder titles. In some cases, studios use them so people from outside the production team wouldn’t find their location and disrupt filming.
Godzilla (2014) was produced under the working title “Nautilus.” The working title for Kong: Skull Island was just “Skull Island.” For Godzilla: King of the Monsters it was being filmed under the working title “Fathom.” Finally, there is Godzilla vs Kong that had the working title “Apex.” So it’s not entirely far fetched that Hourglass will be the TV show’s working title as this show is supposed to be about uncovering a family legacy that is connected to Monarch.
While KdM didn't say anything about Hawaii, I can definitely see Hawaii being one of the filming locations for the show since it has been the most common location to film for the Monsterverse movies ever since Godzilla (2014). The islands of Hawaii are known for their tropical forests that are perfect to shoot scenes that take place on Skull Island and the Hollow Earth. Also, Hawaii was used to shoot scenes for when the MUTO attacked Honolulu airport, Godzilla making his first appearance, and for scenes that took place in Florida in Godzilla vs Kong. So listing Hawaii as one of the filming locations is not all that surprising.
As for Vancouver, my guess is that they film scenes in this location for the battles in San Francisco scenes in Godzilla (2014). I do remember watching a news report about a train that was passing through Vancouver with military vehicles and the locals in this town hearing that all of it was for filming scenes for Godzilla. This town even had a make over to look like San Fransisco to shoot certain scenes for the film. If true, then the show could expand more on the fight and how the characters reacted in the aftermath.
In recent update from KdM, he posted on his Facebook page listing London and San Francisco in place of Vancouver and Hawaii. This sounds to make more sense as one of the characters in the description is an English character and if they want to shoot scenes showing the aftermath of Godzilla's battle with the MUTOs, then filming in San Francisco would be better than flying to Vancouver and turning the whole town into a fake San Fransisco. I could imagine one of the characters going beyond the quarantine zone to enter San Francisco and they encounter a couple of the baby MUTOs that survived from the explosion set off by Ford in the movie.
As for Tokyo, this one he mentioned he is not too sure about due to the production value. KdM did also say that since there are two executive producers from Toho attached to this project, they could hire a crew from their studio to shoot scenes in Tokyo themselves. If I remember correctly, Tokyo is the most expensive location to film a movie. Most of the scenes in Hollywood movies that take place in Japan would actually be shot in either a Hollywood studio or a small location in America where they can get it to look closely like a city in Japan. Also, the scenes that do show scenes that were shot in Japan are actually very brief. So I can very much understand why KdM would be uncertain with Tokyo being one of the filming locations.
The next rumor came from High Flyers Tag Team, which he reports that Ken Watanabe is being contacted to come back and reprise his role as Dr. Serizawa. I asked KdM about this bit of info and to go into a little more detail. Basically, he answered that it is true, but Watanabe is not a sure thing. It’s cool to hear that Legendary is trying to contact Watanabe to come back for this show, but I have said last time that Ken Watanabe is the least likely actor to come back. If he does come back, then great. However, KdM is basically confirming what all of us figured from the beginning that we shouldn’t get our hopes up on it.
The last bit of rumor are the details of the characters. This was first reported by Daniel RPK on his Patreon exclusive podcast and then covered by High Flyers Tag Team. I am not going to go into too much detail such as the names and descriptions because I really want to have the info confirmed officially with a confirmed cast before I report it. The gist of the report is there are 5 Japanese characters and 1 English character, most of them women with one or two men characters. I consulted KdM on this and all he said was that there are six lead characters and one of them is a Japanese-American character. The roles that was described are very accurate, yet could’ve changed since those descriptions were written around 2020/2021. So the descriptions of those characters could have been updated, rewritten, or written out of the show’s script entirely by now.
KdM and I even got to talking casually about the show’s story and how it was brought up was that I mentioned the descriptions for the characters sounded like the story will have multiple stories happening at the same time much like in Surface and I asked if the story would be similar. His answer was that "Hourglass" will have similar elements to Surface with some jumping around back and forth and the plot will be similar here and there, but "Hourglass" will be very different in the end. I mentioned in my previous post that I can see this show being structured similarly to Surface. If you have not seen that show, I do suggest giving it a watch just so you have an idea of what I am talking about and what you could expect from how "Hourglass" might be structured.
Overall, even though some of the information covered being true to some extent, it sounds like the details about "Hourglass" is a very early draft, especially since the stuff about the characters were written around 2020/2021. This is why I didn't want to go into the details of the characters and story until we get an official reveal of the cast. All of the details of the show may have changed over time and will possibly look completely different by the time we get our first look at the show. Changes in story and characters do get made very quickly during the drafting process, in pre-production, and even in post-production. Perhaps some of the characters will only appear in one episode.
I want to thank Königreich der Monster for taking the time to dissect which parts of these rumors are true or false. He has been a huge help and I do recommend following him on Facebook if you want to stay up to date on upcoming Godzilla and Monsterverse projects as well as other movies and tv shows outside of Godzilla.
I want to know what your thoughts are on the rumors. Do you think they’re legit or are you still skeptical? Let me know in the comments section of your thoughts on the rumors. Make sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Minds, MeWe, and Gab to stay up to date with more news, reviews, and discussions.
Facebook: Königreich der Monster