“Only Monster Godzilla Truly Respects”: Godzilla x Kong Ending’s Surprise Titan Return Explained By Director

Warning! This article contains spoilers about Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire director Adam Wingard is opening up about Mothra’s return in the finale. Mothra first appeared on-screen in Toho’s Mothra and met Godzilla in 1964’s aptly-named Mothra vs. Godzilla. Her first Monsterverse appearance came in 2019 in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, though she was mentioned in Kong: Skull Island in 2017. She proved herself to be a strong ally for Godzilla and remained loyal even against the might of King Ghidorah. In The New Empire, she joined Godzilla and Kong in the fight against the Skar King.

Mothra’s return for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire‘s ending was a massive surprise, and Wingard is ready to explain every detail of the encounter. In an interview with Den of Geek, Wingard explained the thrill of seeing Mothra return and the narrative weight of her inclusion. Wingard considers Mothra the most respectable monster in the world, and that is why her return worked so well. Check out his full explanation below:

“There’s a moment in the film where you’ve got Godzilla, Kong, and Mothra in front of the Sphinx, and sometimes when I just looked at it in post, I’d be like, ‘I can’t believe we’ve filled the frame with these three characters… There’s some shots that are like dream shots for a fan of especially Shōwa films where you can’t believe that in one frame you have all of this going on here. The MonsterVerse really is going in some wild and fun directions. The main villain of this film is really a kind of devilish character. Like an alternate title for the film could be ‘Kong Goes to Hell.’ So if Kong’s going to hell and he’s finding these apes toiling away down there under the devil who’s the Scar King, then Mothra’s really this very angelic spirit. And that’s the way I approached her as a character, very ethereal. She’s a pure vessel within the MonsterVerse and she’s like the great negotiator of the monsters. Everybody respects Mothra. She’s the one monster that all the monsters I think will let do her thing, and it’s the only monster I think that Godzilla truly respects. He respects her opinion. So Mothra says, ‘Listen, we need your help,’ Godzilla’s gonna listen. Anything I say right now wouldn’t necessarily be canon. so I don’t want to necessarily tell people what she is. I have my own thoughts of what this version of Mothra is, but I think it’ll be exciting to kind of let that unfold because I’m sure we’ll explore more.”

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