Although last year’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters saw the return of a few familiar faces, most of the characters were brand-new to the MonsterVerse. That said, King of the Monsters was not Thomas Middleditch’s first go-around the franchise, as he also had a minor role in 2017’s Kong: Skull Island.
While Godzilla: King of the Monsters marked the debut of the actor’s character, Sam Coleman, Thomas Middleditch vocally cameoed beforehand in Kong: Skull Island, which the Legendary Twitter page drew attention to during a recent watch party for the second MonsterVerse entry:
Hidden connection: Jerry, the voice on the phone with Weaver, is played by Thomas Middleditch who later starred in the Monsterverse as Sam Coleman in Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Could there be a connection between the two Middleditch characters?
In case you haven’t seen Kong: Skull Island in a while, Jerry was the contact for Brie Larson’s character, photojournalist Mason Weaver. Jerry called Mason up to let her know that she’d been approved to join the Skull Island expedition, and when he asked her why she wanted to go, she told him that she heard that this trip was one with ulterior motives. So while Jerry didn’t directly participate in Kong: Skull Island, he did get to mildly influence the story.
After Legendary shared this tidbit about Thomas Middleditch, Kong: Skull Island director Jordan Vogt-Roberts, who was around for the watch party and worked with Middleditch on The Kings of Summer, said the following about the actor on Twitter:
Thomas is one of my dearest friends and frequent collaborators. I asked him to do this well before KOTM was cast. He clearly is the driving force behind all Kaiju goodness.
If you like playing around with canon, then you certainly imagine that this Jerry is Sam Coleman’s father or grandfather. Perhaps Jerry caught wind from Mason Weaver about what went down on Skull Island, and this ended up inspiring Sam’s interest in Titans, setting him on a path that lead to him becoming Monarch’s Director of Technology and serving as the organization’s liaison with the U.S. government. But hey, this is just me spitballing.
So far, Kong: Skull Island is our only look back at the past in the MonsterVerse, with the two Godzilla movies, as well as the forthcoming Godzilla vs. Kong, being contemporary set pieces. Since Sam Coleman survived the events of King of the Monsters, it’s possible we could see him again, but for now, there’s no word on Thomas Middleditch reprising the role anytime soon.
What we can look forward to is Godzilla and King Kong finally clashing later this year. In addition to this being the first time that the two monsters have come to blows in an American blockbuster, Godzilla vs. Kong will also follow Monarch investigating the origins of the Titans, as well as a conspiracy being uncovered to eliminate these gigantic creatures.
Godzilla vs. Kong rampages into theaters on November 20, so stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more coverage. In the meantime, keep track of what else hits theaters later this year with our 2020 release schedule.
