While many studios have attempted to build their own cinematic universe following the success of Marvel, one of the most successful has been the Monsterverse that has brought together both King Kong and the various kaiju creatures from the Godzilla franchise. That series has been building toward its own Avengers style moment with Godzilla vs. Kong, which will be out later this year, and when it does, it looks like it will be bringing back a key human character, Dr. Houston Brooks.
We first met Houston Brooks when he was played by Corey Hawkins in Kong: Skull Island. Hawkins is a seismologist who is recruited by Monarch to track down the massive ape on the mysterious island. At the end of that movie, he is shown the truth and the history of the titan creatures like Godzilla. Dr. Brooks returned in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, though even if you saw that movie (and not enough people did) you might have missed that fact. He was played by Joe Morton, but the movie never makes clear that the character is the same man, just many years in the future.
It looks like the older Houston Brooks may have a much bigger role in the forthcoming Godzilla vs. Kong, as the character returns in a new graphic novel prequel (via comcbook.com) which is designed to set up the new movie. The plot of the new film will reportedly take things back to Skull Island, the home of Kong, and so it makes sense that the character of Brooks would become more important once again, as he'll potentially have specific knowledge that will be quite useful to everybody else.
Houston Brooks isn't the only character from a previous movie set to return for the finale. Millie Bobby Brown will be reprising her role from Godzilla: King of the Monsters as Madison Russell and Kyle Chandler will be back playing her father, Mark. Godzilla vs. Kong also stars Alexander Skarsgård, Rebecca Hall, and Brian Tyree Henry.
Godzilla vs. Kong was originally set to release in early 2020 but the movie was pushed into November. It was a fairly well timed decision, as it was made in November 2019, months before movie theater closures started to happen around the world. The film would have been pushed back anyway as it was set to open last month before being pushed back.
Hopefully bringing Godzilla and Kong together will be enough to energize the box office when the movie comes out. Godzilla: King of the Monsters, while it wasn't a complete flop, had a rougher than expected time in theaters. One wonders if we would have even seen Godzilla vs. Kong this soon if the movie hadn't already been in production. But for the fans who have been invested in this series, it means that they'll get to see the big battle between Godzilla and Kong that they've been waiting for.
