At Comic-Con 2014, Legendary Pictures celebrated its success with "Godzilla" by announcing that there will be a sequel, and that director Gareth Edwards would return to direct it. Edwards will start work on the film in a few years, after his "Star Wars" spin-off gig is completed. Also announced was that classic Toho Godzilla monsters Mothra, Rodan and Ghidorah, and possibly more, will appear in "Godzilla 2."
Later, Legendary shocked the Hall H crowd by announcing a new film called "Skull Island." That name is best known by King Kong fans as the lost-world island full of mythical creatures like dinosaurs, giant spiders and the big gorilla himself. Legendary stopped short of announcing Kong's presence in the film, but it seems silly to have a movie called "Skull Island" if you're not going to at least introduce King Kong.
At first, the audience seemed surprised that Legendary was going to tackle King Kong less than ten years after Peter Jackson's big-budget love letter to the classic film. That movie was a financial success but failed to achieve the "classic" status that Jackson was going for. After the initial shock wore off, it quickly became apparent what Legendary was up to. Godzilla and his monster friends plus King Kong and his island of mythical beasts.
It doesn't take a genius to do that math.
Legendary is undoubtedly launching an entire franchise of giant monsters, aka kaiju, that collectively inhabit a single universe. In other words, the studio is following Marvel's "Avengers" model of building a universe of shared continuity that will inevitably lead to crossovers and team-ups. So it's only a matter of time before the studio announces production on a "Godzilla vs. King Kong" movie.
Nothing is known about "Skull Island" at the moment besides the title and a release date. Legendary has penciled-in November 4, 2016. "Godzilla" was one of a handful of successful films that were also critical darlings in an otherwise dismal 2014 summer at the box office.
All this focus by Legendary on kaiju is a little ironic when you remember that this studio also produced "Pacific Rim" and is working on the sequel. "Pacific Rim" reintroduced kaiju to the world a full year before the modern Godzilla made his debut. Don't bother waiting for a "Pacific Rim" crossover with the Godzillaverse. Creator Guillermo del Toro has been quite specific in stating that his movie franchise takes place in its own deep, rich mythological universe.
