Ever since the Marvel Cinematic Universe really began finding monumental success with the release of 2012’s The Avengers, there has been a seemingly endless stream of discussion about “cinematic universes.” Most major studios decided to try their hand at developing their own cinematic universe to rival the infinitely growing MCU, whether it be with competing superhero brands like DC, franchises like the Universal Monsters or vast historical legends like King Arthur. While some of these universes, such as the Conjuring universe, managed to carve out their own success with the format, most of the cinematic universes attempted by the major studios crashed and burned in spectacular fashion. However, there has been one cinematic universe that has built itself slowly and quietly, leading to it outlasting much of its competition.
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This underdog, of sorts, in the cinematic universe landscape is the MonsterVerse, developed by Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. The MonsterVerse is a cinematic universe that has been built out of the newly relaunched Godzilla and King Kong franchises, with many other Kaijus and titan-sized monsters joining those two behemoths on screen over the course of several films. As it stands, the MonsterVerse currently only consists of four movies. The first entry in the MonsterVerse came in 2014 with the rebooted Godzilla film directed by Gareth Edwards. Since then, it has been built out by 2017’s Kong: Skull Island, 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters and 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong. While none of these films have been critical darlings by any means, they’ve each achieved varying degrees of success with audiences and at the box office. Across all four films, the production budget is estimated to be about $675 million. That may seem like a lot, but it’s more than made up by the box office receipts, which total up to just under $2 billion.
Despite the slow pace at which it has been built over the last eight years, the MonsterVerse has consistently kept its momentum going. It’s not slowing down either, as there is a direct sequel to Godzilla vs. Kong already in production and scheduled to be released in March 2024. On top of that, there is also a live-action series being added to the universe as well. Titled Godzilla and the Titans, the new series stars the father-son duo of Kurt Russell and Wyatt Russell. Cameras began shooting on the new series back in July, but as of yet there has been no release date announced. With the various films that have already been released, and the multiple projects coming soon, the MonsterVerse is still alive and well. And, in an age where the MCU is beginning to bow under its own weight and the DCU is still struggling to get off the ground, there’s an argument to be made that the MonsterVerse is the best cinematic universe out there right now. Here’s what sets the MonsterVerse apart from the competition:
Doesn’t Take Itself Too Seriously
Warner Bros. Pictures
Most of all, what really sets the MonsterVerse apart from the other cinematic universes of the 21st century is the tone that it decides to take with its properties. Instead of trying to build a grand universe of different characters and stories that are constantly hopping from one property to another, the creatives behind the MonsterVerse know what the audience wants. People don’t go to a film like Godzilla vs. Kong to see how it continues the overall story of the previous films in the series. People go to see Godzilla vs. Kong because they want to see a giant lizard breathe fire at a giant gorilla. They want to have fun and eat way too much popcorn while doing so. They’re not looking to get buried in a bunch of details that you need to have seen a dozen other films to understand. While 2014’s Godzilla took the approach of hiding the titular monster for much of the runtime, that mistake has been remedied by the three films that have followed.
With Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla: King of the Monsters, the MonsterVerse showed a newfound desire to meet audience expectations with the titan-sized fight nights. Kong was full to the brim of new creatures and monsters to excite viewers, in addition to a much larger Kong than had been seen prior. This led to numerous thrilling sequences that were the kind of monster mashing action that audiences were hoping for out of 2014’s Godzilla. The 2019 Godzilla sequel continued that streak by introducing many of the classic Godzilla-adjacent monsters, such as Mothra and King Ghidorah, for everyone’s favorite radioactive iguana to go toe-to-toe with. Say what you will about the human characters and overall plots of those two films; they more than delivered in the one area that they needed to.
Godzilla vs. Kong was the first monstrously big test of the potential of the MonsterVerse. It was the first time that the different monsters and characters were brought into one colossal event movie, and the results were pretty spectacular. The film was released in early 2021, day-and-date on HBOMax and in-theaters, and in a cinematic landscape that was still reeling from the effects of the global pandemic. Despite those factors working against it, Godzilla vs. Kong found gargantuan success. The film managed to gross nearly half a billion dollars worldwide. While that’s nowhere near where the film would’ve landed if it were released in a typical year, it was still more than enough to prove that there is still substantial interest in what the MonsterVerse has to offer. People have increasingly started going out to theaters purely for excitement and spectacle, and Godzilla vs. Kong delivered that in spades.
Logical Connections
Now, this casual approach to building the MonsterVerse does not mean that there isn’t any connective tissue between the movies. In actuality, the creatives behind the franchise really do the work when it comes to interweaving all of these stories with the same stories and characters. The base off of which all this universe is built is the organization Monarch. Essentially, Monarch serves as the governmental organization responsible for addressing any issues that arrive with the various titans of the MonsterVerse. They first appeared in the 2014 Godzilla film and have since been featured in every entry in the franchise. Every film has featured the organization in some way, with main characters often being Monarch agents or otherwise connected to the organization.
Using Monarch as the main connective material between MonsterVerse films has worked out fairly well for the franchise in the long run. With each new film, the organization and its goals become more and more clear. It has begun to feel like familiar territory for the franchise in the sense that it has created a consistent tone and approach that is brought to each new movie. It’s a simple connection, sure, but the success of the franchise has proven that this kind of simple connectivity is really all you need. While the franchise has had recurring characters from film to film, it doesn’t rely too heavily on any particular actor to lead the franchise. The cast of the films is constantly changing. That doesn’t make the series feel disjointed though, as the creatives behind the MonsterVerse know that the stars of the films are the monsters, not the actors that run underneath them.
With Godzilla, Kong and the other monsters continuing to pop up around the MonsterVerse, there’s really not much need for other connectivity beyond Monarch. The films still make story connections where they can, just to build a little bit more of the world when the opportunity presents itself. However, the franchise doesn’t bend over backwards to throw in as many references to other films and characters as it can. It’s clear that the point of the universe is not how interconnected it is, but rather that the interconnectivity is just a nice additional detail to this series. Choosing not to rely on interconnectivity like that is something that has differentiated the MonsterVerse from the likes of the MCU and the DCU.
Easy to Follow
While the lack of a dozen different films and series might look like a sign that the MonsterVerse has not been able to achieve success with the cinematic universe model, the small number of films is actually one of the biggest strengths of the franchise. Unlike the MCU with its over 30 projects, or the DCU with its confusing continuity and timeline, the MonsterVerse has something unique to offer: simplicity. The significantly less-constant release of new content for the MonsterVerse has resulted in a long shelf-life for the franchise’s individual films. New entries in the series aren’t immediately buried by half-a-dozen other movies and series in the same year. Getting caught up on the series isn’t the same monumental task that it is for other cinematic universes. Because of this, the MonsterVerse is undeniably the most accessible cinematic universe out there right now.
Beyond that, while the films of the MonsterVerse are certainly connected and building off each other, each new entry still tells its own distinctive story. All four of the films work as standalone movies just as well as they do pieces of the larger universe. Rather than approaching the interconnectivity between films as one big story that uses films essentially as episodes of an immense TV series, the MonsterVerse embraces the actual universe aspect of a cinematic universe. The MonsterVerse’s approach to the cinematic universe is to use the universe as a setting to set its films within, rather than a plot to slot them into. By doing this, there’s a sense of continuity created from one film to the next, without having strict stories that you need to see all the previous entries to follow.
This method of building a cinematic universe has made the MonsterVerse much more approachable for everyday viewers. If there’s a film in the series playing on TV or a new entry coming soon to theaters, audiences don’t need to feel the pressure to get caught up on everything in order to enjoy what they’re presented with. Plus, even if they decide to get caught up, it’s only a few films to watch, not a never-ending avalanche of content. It’s much more casual. Informally throwing on a MonsterVerse movie doesn’t feel like a chore, and audiences don’t need to feel required to do extensive homework before going to see the latest entry in a theater. Essentially, the MonsterVerse is able to be one of the best cinematic universes by just sprinkling the concept on top of its films, rather than making it the whole meal.
