Trivia / Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

• Approval of God: Takashi Yamazaki, the writer and director of Godzilla Minus One, got to watch the film early and thought it was good fun.
• Content Leak: On February 21, 2024, fifty images from a test-screening of the movie were leaked onto social media, revealing many details of the plot. This was followed by claims that the entire movie had been leaked online (these were later proven to be a prank, and the general fandom response was Dude, Not Funny!).
• Duelling Works:
  • With Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire - another sci-fi action adventure film with "Empire" in the title and which deals with the titular characters going up against an ice-themed villain - which released a week prior to this one.
  • With Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, another ape-centric film featuring a tyrannical ape king with goals of conquest and subjugation of other apes.
• Flip-Flop of God: Whether Shimo is male or female became a topic of heated debate amongst the fandom when Amazon and Target's pages for the "Shimo with Frost Bite Blast" toy used female pronouns while other retailers used male pronouns. When asked to weigh in on the subject on X/Twitter, creature designer Jared Krichevsky initially stated that either option works but later referred to Shimo using male pronouns, which only intensified the debate. Eventually it was clarified that Shimo had originally been intended to be male, but had been changed to be female later in development, and female pronouns are used in the movie proper.
• Foiler Footage: The shot of Godzilla and Kong roaring in front of the Sphinx at the end of the second trailer, in the final film Mothra is also present between the two.
• Milestone Celebration: This film releases in 2024 exactly 10 years after the release of Gareth Edward’s Godzilla, the film that launched the entire franchise. Likewise 2024 marks the 70th anniversary of the Godzilla franchise overall.
• Orphaned Reference: The producers were unsure if they would get the rights to use Mothra during production, so a Canon Foreigner placeholder monster named Phosphera was designed just in case. They got the go-ahead in post-production and all references to Phosphera were then removed, except for one background carving in an Iwi temple, which still shows Phosphera.
• Recursive Adaptation: In a sense. The toyline for Godzilla vs. Kong included two "Titan Tech" figures, one each of Kong and Godzilla, which could transform into armored/cyborg forms for the two. The design and packaging blurb imply that these were created by Monarch to power up the Titans to fight bigger threats. In The New Empire, Kong gets a Powered Armor glove that shares some similar details to his Titan Tech figure's flip-out armor, and the glove itself is said to have been part of the cancelled Project Powerhouse to make a strength-augmenting exoskeleton for Kong.
• Release Date Change: Initially, the movie was supposed to be released on April 12, 2024 but it was moved to an earlier date, 29 of March.
  • Releasing only 147 days after the Japanese release of Godzilla Minus One (November 3rd, 2023), this is the shortest time frame between the release of two Godzilla movies in the franchise's history (beating out the time between the anime trilogy films by about a month).
• Spoiled by the Merchandise:
  • Much like with Godzilla vs. Kong, in November 2023 photos of the toyline merchandise showing Godzilla's new design were revealed ahead of schedule — with fans having mixed opinions about how skinny it looked. While some were suspicious of its legitimacy, on December 2nd an Empire magazine article was issued containing photos that reinforced its legitimacy, with it being confirmed as true the same day when official art of the revamped design was revealed on Legendary's merch store and the official trailer released. After the trailer's release, some fans lamented that the official design in the movie has pink dorsal plates—unlike the toy, which appeared to have red dorsal plates. When the toy actually released, it actually had dark magenta clear plastic dorsal plates on its back and salmon paint on the tail plates, more closely resembling the film.
  • The film's toyline also spoiled the design for Shimo, a reptilian kaiju somewhat similar to Godzilla but with white scales, blue dorsal spikes and horns, and ice-based powers—revealing it to be the same mystery Titan teased in the "Operation Monarch" event for Call of Duty: Warzone.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Among the test screening leaks to emerge for the film was a new monster occupying the role that went to Mothra, an angel/phoenix like creature named Phosphera. According to Adam Wingard, the plan was always Mothra but they weren't sure if they were actually going to get to use her so Phosphera was created as a placeholder.
  • Concept art shows Kong still having his axe and missing the glove during the Egypt fight, implying he wouldn't have originally lost it to Skar King.
  • One piece of concept art showed what appears to be the final battle taking place not in Rio de Janerio, Brazil, but rather in Moscow, Russia. It's possible the change was made due to Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine, although this is just speculation. ^note Had this change not occurred, it would have marked Moscow's first appearance in a Godzilla film since Destroy All Monsters where Rodan attacked the Russian capital.
  • Suko was originally supposed to have a mullet.
• You Sound Familiar: In the Japanese dub, Trapper is voiced by Mamoru Miyano, who previously voiced the hero Haruo Sakaki from the Gen Urobuchi's Godzilla's animated film trilogy.