Legendary has announced a November 4, 2016 release date for King Kong: Skull Island, a film they described in a press release saying, “Previous works have touched on the island, but staying and exploring this mysterious and dangerous place offers Legendary the opportunity to take audiences deeper inside this rich world with a style and scope that parallels other Legendary productions.”
A teaser for the movie was shown to the Comic Con audience described as featuring a rainy “island, and then a shot of, yup, King Kong beating his chest.”
In addition to this news, the production studio, which recently moved from Warner Bros. to Universal, also teased Godzilla 2 with a brief bit of footage of which was described as follows by ComingSoon.net:
“They showed a bunch of old newsreel footage similar to the opening credits but it was interspersed with the tag: “There is still one secret that remains hidden,” “There are others.” And then we see a shadow of what’s clearly Rodan with the words “Codename: Rodan.” Then they show the old Mothra with the title “Codename: Mothra,” and lastly…. “Codename: Ghidorah! Monarch Assessment: Conflict Imminent.” Followed by the words “LET THEM FIGHT”
It has since been confirmed you won’t see all three monsters — Mothra, Rodan and Ghidorah — in Godzilla 2, but instead one or two of them will be featured in Godzilla 2 and others in future Godzilla sequels… However, the announcement of both Godzilla 2‘s monsters and a King Kong prequel from the same production company would certainly suggest Legendary is building toward a showdown with the great ape and radioactive monster.
The only question I have about this is with regard to the rights for Godzilla, of which I believe belong to Legendary. However, I know Godzilla 2 is already set up at Warner Bros. while Universal is sure to release King Kong: Skull Island. Question is, what about after that? Can Legendary take all future Godzilla sequels to Universal or does WB have right to first refusal?
No director has been announced for the King Kong prequel as of yet, but Gareth Edwards will be returning to direct Godzilla 2 once he completes work on his Star Wars spinoff film, which is set to hit theaters on December 16, 2016, suggesting we may see the Godzilla sequel, at the earliest in 2017, but perhaps not until 2018.
