The MonsterVerse has been wildly inconsistent from the start, but if Godzilla vs. Kong proved anything, it's that people love seeing these Titans clash on screen. The hope is that Legendary and Apple TV+'s upcoming series, believed to be titled Godzilla and the Titans, will deliver more epic fights, but can that work with a television budget?
During a recent interview with Collider, WandaVision and Fantastic Four director Matt Shakman addressed the financial challenge that bringing the MonsterVerse to the small screen presents.
"You always run out of money eventually, even if it's Harry Potter or Star Wars, Star Trek, Godzilla, you run out of money. But it's less about carrying out shots...and more just about storytelling," he explains. "You know, how much was Godzilla going to factor into the story, and he has a very important role to play, and how he factors into the series is a big part of it."
"So that was the bigger driver, and he's not the only Titan that you're gonna meet along the way. So there's, yeah, there's a VFX conversation constantly happening in that."
Despite confirming that we'll see a number of Titans in the series, Shakman was understandably cautious about giving too much away, including where this series lands in the wider MonsterVerse timeline.
"You know, I can't really say because that's part of the joy of it is, actually timelines [are] a big part of the storytelling," he said. "So I just want to say that's part of it, but I can’t really say more than that."
"There is some overlap with [Godzilla and Kong], though we were not heavily involved in talking about it with Adam Wingard and his team. Legendary is the studio for our show, as well as for the films, and so they sort of sit at the juncture there between the two, and they have a mythology department there which is wonderful."
"So they weigh in on how things might overlap, how certain creatures need to stay on one side or the other, and so there is a lot of conversation about it," Shakman concluded. "But in terms of how closely the narratives overlap, it's not as involved to say, an MCU kind of Disney+ film crossover. It's less organized."
In other words, they're not really worrying too much about telling one big interconnected story. Godzilla vs. Kong was dumb fun, and just placing this series somewhere during the period Godzilla was King of the Monsters will likely be enough to satisfy those turning in for an enjoyable story and heaps of Kaiju on Kaiju battles.
It's previously been reported that the show will focus on the aftermath of the thunderous battle between Godzilla and the Titans that leveled San Francisco and the shocking new reality that monsters are real, with one family’s journey to uncover its buried secrets and a legacy linking them to the secret organization known as Monarch.
Legendary Television is producing this MonsterVerse TV series that was co-created by Chris Black (Star Trek: Enterprise) and Matt Fraction (Hawkeye), with the former serving as showrunner. Shakman will direct the first two episodes and serve as an executive producer.
The cast, meanwhile, is undeniably impressive with real-life father and son Kurt and Wyatt Russell starring alongside Anna Sawai, Ren Watabe, Kiersey Clemons, Joe Tippett, and Elisa Lasowski.
Stay tuned for updates on Godzilla and the Titans!