There's a lot of mystery still surrounding writer/director Michael Dougherty's Godzilla follow-up, Godzilla: King of the Monsters. However, what the film lacks in concrete plot information it makes up for solely on the basis of the casting information we've been receiving. Nowhere is this more evident than in the film's most recent announcement of international star Zhang Ziyi, best known for her role in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, as its latest cast member.
Ziyi's role is reportedly crucial to the workings of the Monarch Organization. Other than that, there are no details as to who she'll be playing, alongside her fellow Monarch colleagues Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins. Also known for her role as the villainous party of Chris Tucker's affections in Rush Hour 2, Zhang Ziyi has mostly been acting outside of American projects. Though between this particular project, as well as her role in this year's untitled entry in the Cloverfield universe, it looks like she might be poised for a resurgence in Hollywood.
Now, we're about to go off on a crazy little theory as to who Ziyi will be playing, but it's connected to the overall lore of Godzilla films past. With as little information as we have on the human contingent, we do know the monsters that will be showing up in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and Mothra just happens to be one of them. In the classic films, the winged beast had a telepathic link with a pair of fairies that not only could talk with the kaiju, but also speak on its behalf. Keeping that in mind, as well as Ziyi's "crucial" role with Monarch, it doesn't seem far off to assume that Zhang Ziyi might play one or both twin representatives of Mothra, and whether or not that holds true, we'll keep you updated as we get more details.
If Godzilla: King of the Monsters is going out of its way to cast younger actors like Stranger Things' Millie Bobbie Brown, and since Michael Dougherty is versed in the ways of an 80's infused creature feature, there's a chance that whichever character Brown plays may be another character with a link to Mothra. Should this be the case, Zhang Ziyi could also play a mentoring figure to Millie Bobbie Brown's burgeoning MUTO whisperer.
As Godzilla set the table for a story of humanity trying to better understand and co-exist with the MUTOs around the globe, the message was only furthered with this year's Kong: Skull Island, which also exists in the shared MonsterVerse. Putting it all together, it looks like the world is not only going to experience more monsters, but people are also going to understand them a whole lot better. Of course, this is all waiting to be confirmed or debunked, as Godzilla: King of the Monsters doesn't have a lot of story laid out for fans to dissect. Thankfully, we do know that the film is coming on March 22nd, 2019.
