“We Ripped It Off”: Godzilla X Kong Changed A Scene After Seeing Godzilla Minus One Did It Better

Director Adam Wingard reveals that a Godzilla Minus One moment inspired a last-minute change to Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire. The 2024 movie continues the Monsterverse’s modern narrative following the events of 2022’s Godzilla vs Kong, as the two Titans join forces as an underground menace threatens to reshape the power balance of the Earth. The Godzilla X Kong cast includes Rebecca Hall, Dan Stevens, and Brian Tyree Henry. Godzilla Minus One saw Takashi Yamazaki take the Kaiju back to post-WW2 Japan, where a traumatized pilot must face the sins of his past as Godzilla approaches the country.

As Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire prepares to emerge in theaters, Wingard explained to Deadline how a last-minute change was inspired by Godzilla Minus One after seeing footage of the feature for himself. After early trailers for Yamazaki’s feature included a shot of Godzilla stomping into the ground, the Monsterverse director saw similarities between a shot he had used in his 2024 sequel and quickly asked his visual effects editor to replicate the shot. Check out Windgard’s response below:

We did, yes. Whenever we were in post-production on this film, Godzilla Minus One was, I think the trailer had been released, I had’t seen it yet, but when I saw the trailer there’s a shot that’s very specifically of Godzilla crushing into the ground his foot, and he pushes the ground up, the force of his… the weight of him pushes the earth upwards. And we had a shot from a similar angle that we had been working on for a couple of months, and it never really was working. But the second I saw that Minus One shot, I thought “That’s what we need to do.” So, we basically I took my phone to my visual effects editor, showed him the trailer on YouTube, and I was like “This is what we need to do.” And so we kinda copied the shot as a little homage to them. We ripped it off.

How Adam Wingard & Takashi Yamazaki View Each Other’s Godzilla Approaches

Wingard And Yamazaki Have Expressed Admiration For Each Other’s Work.

While debates have sparked around whether Yamazaki or the Monsterverse’s Godzilla approach works best for a higher-quality movie, there is little bad blood between the creatives on each production. While Wingard’s last-minute tribute shows his appreciation for the Oscar-winning Godzilla Minus One, he also ranked the movie among his favorite releases of 2023 and appreciated its deeper and meaningful subtext and human story. The Monterverse director also stated in a 2023 interview that he appreciated how the Kaiju could be used to address a variety of narratives.

Meanwhile, Yamazaki has been open about not only his opinions of the Monsterverse but the US studio’s overall approach to Godzilla. During an interview released during his feature’s US theatrical run, Yamazaki stated that the US approach was a “more fun version of what Godzilla can be” that balances human-led stories with what the Kaiju can do. The Godzilla Minus One director also supported Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire after attending an early screening, praising the spectacle of the Titan team-up on the big screen.

Whether the Monsterverse’s human-led, multi-monster epics or Yamazaki’s unflinching exploration of guilt and trauma in Godzilla Minus One, it is clear that both iterations have helped enshrine the Kaiju as a cinematic staple. While Wingard might joke that Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire‘s tribute to Toho’s 2023 hit is a “rip-off,” it is a welcome sight to see each filmmaker take what works in another feature to make the best movie possible. With Godzilla Minus One‘s incredible success, eagle-eyed Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire viewers will be keen to see Wingard’s last-minute homage.