A scrapped Hollow Earth setpiece from Godzilla Vs Kong could have made Kong’s ending even better. Godzilla Vs Kong wasn’t the first time the two Titans had clashed onscreen, but that did little to dampen anticipation for the 2021 blockbuster. Adam Wingard’s crossover movie wisely moved the story along at a quick pace and kept the human drama to a minimum. While Godzilla Vs Kong isn’t the best entry in the MonsterVerse universe, it was one of the most purely fun. It was also a sizable hit during the pandemic, with Wingard signed on for Godzilla Vs Kong 2.
Godzilla Vs Kong also introduced audiences to the Hollow Earth, a subterranean ecosystem that was the original home of the Titans. Much of the story is spent with the human heroes and Kong trying to reach the Hollow Earth, which is home to any number of bizarre creatures. This locale will no doubt play a big role in future MonsterVerse adventures, but the expedition itself ends when Godzilla uses his atomic breath to blast a hole down into the throne room of Kong’s ancestors. It turns out there was originally much more to this moment in the script.
Godzilla vs. Kong’s Cut Hollow Earth Fight Adds To Kong’s GvK Fate
Speaking with Empire, Wingard revealed there was originally another fight between Godzilla and Kong in the Hollow Earth. After he blasted into the Earth, Godzilla was supposed to crawl down into the throne room where he and fellow “Alpha” Titan Kong would have duked it out. According to the director, despite this sequence being heavily storyboarded, they couldn’t figure out a way to make it stand out from the other two fights, so he decided it would be more impactful to cut it. That said, having a fight in the throne room would have added more thematic weight to Godzilla Vs Kong’s ending.
The MonsterVerse’s Kong only truly became King Kong when he sat on the throne of his ancestors; having Godzilla smash into said throne room and challenge his status has an obvious subtext to it. Kong became the ruler of the Hollow Earth in Godzilla Vs Kong’s ending, so having him defend his new domain would have made this ending even more potent. That said, Wingard’s point that he didn’t want to add a fight for the sake of more action is solid, plus it might have been awkward to end with the two monsters then crawling out of the throne room to continue their battle in Hong Kong.
A LOT Was Cut From Godzilla Vs Kong
Godzilla Vs Kong underwent some big changes during post-production. While this might signal trouble between Wingard and the studio, it was the filmmaker himself who deemed these changes necessary. He felt Godzilla Vs Kong needed to be less than two hours, and thus removed several character arcs and subplots. This includes the near-total removal of Lance Reddick as the director of Monarch and the lessening of that latter organization’s role in the plot; a sequence where Godzilla attacks a Monarch base was also deleted.
The character of Ren Serizawa (Shun Oguri) was also vastly reworked. The final Godzilla Vs Kong doesn’t even reveal he’s the son of Ken Watanabe’s late Dr. Serizawa, and his original introduction meeting Alexander Skarsgård’s Lind in a bar was dropped. A reporter played by Jessica Henwick was cut entirely, as was a return appearance by Zhang Ziyi from King Of The Monsters. It was also revealed that Eiza González’s Maia had been controlling Godzilla’s actions via a special device, which originally explained why he was rampaging around the world.
