I’ve watched Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, and it makes me confident that this upcoming live-action reboot of a classic 1980s cartoon will be good. As a fan of cartoons from the 1980s, I have been burned over and over again when it comes to bad live-action remakes, with many of them not able to capture the tone of the originals. However, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire has a major connection to this upcoming remake, and the MonsterVerse proves to me that this film can work in a way that many of the other remakes didn’t.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is the latest entry in Legendary’s MonsterVerse, with it bringing the two titular Titans together once again, with them this time working together to stop a world-ending threat. Although the MonsterVerse movies are a mixed bag, with them varying in quality from the classic kaiju movies that they are based on, these films are a lot of fun. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire leans more into this wacky tone more than any of the previous MonsterVerse films, letting me know that this upcoming remake is in good hands.

Adam Wingard’s Godzilla x Kong Movies Prove He’s The Right Director For ThunderCats

He Got The Tone Right

Adam Wingard is the director of several MonsterVerse movies, and his work on the Godzilla x Kong films proves that he is the right director for the upcoming live-action remake of ThunderCats. That’s right, an upcoming live-action ThunderCats movie is in the works, with it being based on the classic 1980s cartoon series of the same name. Luckily, Adam Wingard is set to direct the ThunderCats reboot film, and his MonsterVerse track record highlights that he may be the only one that can pull off the tone of the cartoon that I love.

Godzilla vs. Kong and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire didn’t pretend to be anything that they weren’t, with them dropping all of the baggage of the previous MonsterVerse films and leaning into the wacky fun that viewers are there for. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire was all about showing off massive monster action, with the film’s tone and sense of humor allowing it to fully focus on the antics of Godzilla and Kong. This was great news for me and other fans of the MonsterVerse, but it is also great news for the ThunderCats movie.

ThunderCats Needs To Embrace The Original Cartoon’s Tone

It Can’t Be Too Serious Or Too Funny

The ThunderCats franchise has had an identity crisis ever since the original 1980s series ended, and the only way that the upcoming ThunderCats movie can work is by embracing the original cartoon’s tone. Three ThunderCats TV shows have been made, and while the positively-received 2011 series was successful because it leaned into the lore of the series, ThunderCats Roar was not. ThunderCats Roar attempted to rely more on the comedy than the original show, which is why me and other ThunderCats fans didn’t enjoy it.

The tone of the original ThunderCats series is a hard one to balance, as it feels as if the show takes itself seriously, but nobody outside the show takes itself seriously. Much like many of the other action cartoons of the 1980s, the creators knew that they were making something silly, but they treated it seriously, giving it the campy tone that it is known for. The upcoming ThunderCats movie needs to be able to find this campy tone, as a meta approach or an ultra-serious approach would both be massive mistakes.

Godzilla x Kong Proves A ThunderCats Movie Can Work

Adam Wingard Can Pull It Off

As strange as it may sound, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire proves that a ThunderCats movie can work, as it highlights that Adam Wingard can strike this tone. While both films are very different, they have the same creative challenge, with Wingard being able to overcome it in the latter film. The concept of a giant lizard and a giant ape fighting other giant animals is inherently silly, but Wingard leans into this silliness to deliver the fun action and adventure that the premise allows for.

Giant anthropomorphic alien cats are another very weird premise that could fail, but if Adam Wingard takes the same approach that he did in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, it could work. The ThunderCats movie needs to literally feel like a live-action episode of the original TV series, and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire gives me hope that this can be done.