Godzilla: King of the Monsters debuts a whole host of massive titan creatures to beat the hell out of each other. However, one massive beast is conspicuous by his absence. While King of the Monsters does a bit to tease the forthcoming Godzilla Vs. Kong, King Kong himself is actually missing from the film.
Considering just how massive and world changing the battle of Godzilla: King of the Monsters is, you might expect King Kong to stand up and take notice. However, as is apparently revealed in the novelization of King of the Monsters, while Kong is well aware of what's going on around him, he simply doesn't care. Director Mike Dougherty shared the appropriate passage from the novel on Twitter....
As it turns out, King Kong is just out of F's to give when it comes to the others "more like him." We know from the Godzilla movies that these titans have the ability to communicate with each other, and King Kong is capable of picking up on this communication. However, he simply has no interest in it. He's happy living on Skull Island and minding his own business.
Having said that, the passage also hints at what is to come. The deep dwellers, the creatures that Kong fights in Skull Island, are waking up, and that is going to force King Kong to take action. We also know from the post-credits scene from Godzilla: King of the Monsters that Kong is going to be confronted with the other titans as well, so sitting this battle out is no longer an option.
This will all lead to Godzilla Vs. Kong, the next film in the giant monster smashing cinematic universe. That movie only just recently finished filming, and so is now involved in the significant post-production period that will be needed before the movie hits screens next year.
With the growth of the cinematic universe concept, these worlds can get quite crowded. There are so many superheroes, giant monsters, or whatever else roaming around that we know are out there that the question of what they're doing during any given moment is a valid one. It's been wondered on more than one occasion during any given superhero movie why other heroes didn't show up to help out whenever the next global catastrophe took place, and this is basically the same question.
I like the idea that King Kong just didn't care enough to get involved in all this. One of the difficulties in making these giant monster movies and letting us see them from the human perspective is that we can't really understand the emotions and the motivation of the creatures themselves. The novelization lets us peek into the mind of the titans in a way the movies don't. It helps us understand their motivations, or in this case, lack of motivation, and that's only a benefit to the larger story.
Maybe it's the fact that King Kong just wants to be left the hell alone that will lead to the ultimate conflict of Godzilla Vs. Kong. It's not that these creatures actually want to hurt each other, but Godzilla has some massive beasts to destroy and Kong just wants everybody to get off his doorstep.
Godzilla Vs. Kong arrives in May 2020.
