Monsterverse

A cinematic Shared Universe of movies about giant monsters.

It started with 2014 with Godzilla, the first American movie about the character since the infamous 1998 movie. Three years later came Kong: Skull Island and began the Shared Universe, focusing on the Titans and their impact on the natural world.

The main films are:

• Godzilla (2014)
• Kong: Skull Island (2017)
• Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
• Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)
• Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)

The Monsterverse has also been expanded upon through comics and two television series; Skull Island on Netflix and Monarch: Legacy of Monsters on Apple TV+.

Not to be confused with the Dark Universe, a Shared Universe about the Universal Monsters.

Tropes used in Monsterverse include:

• Achilles Heel: Godzilla's neck is noted to be his weakest point.
• Adaptational Badass: Compared to previous films, the Titans are much larger and stronger. Notably, while it still wounded him, this Godzilla survived the Oxygen Destroyer.
• Adaptational Heroism: Both Godzilla and Kong. While they've been Anti-Heroes before, this continuity casts them both as clear-cut heroes, albeit they can often hew into Good Is Not Nice and are, by nature of their massive size, Destructive Saviours.
• Aliens Are Bastards: Ghidorah. His malice even manages to infect Mechagodzilla.
• Always Someone Better: Godzilla to Kong. For all of Kong's strength, speed and fighting ability, he is ultimately a Badass Normal (for a Titan) and doesn't have anywhere near Godzilla's experience in battle. Godzilla is a Badass Abnormal even by his species' standard, has been fighting longer, has a body more geared for warfare and a Healing Factor.
• Age Lift: Kong has not yet fully matured and was a teenager in the 1970s, contrasting most versions of the character who have been around since prehistoric times.
• Animals Lack Attributes: Kong, despite looking like a gorilla, does not have anything between his legs. He does have a pair of prominent buttocks as well as nipples that blend in with the rest of his skin very well.
• Attack of the 50 Foot Whatever
• Berserk Button:
  • Actually injuring him appears to be Godzilla's.
  • Kong's is violating his Declaration of Protection. He's livid when he meets the Skar King who so callously tosses away the lives of the last Great Ape tribe.
• Big Good: M.O.N.A.R.C.H. They fight against the evil monsters while teaming up with the good monsters.
• Both Sides Have a Point: Despite the overall Green Aesop, the series notes this about the environmentalist debate. Long-term, yes, the environmentalists are absolutely right about nature needing to be preserved so that life can continue to exist on Earth. Short-term though, their counterparts, however morally bankrupt they're often painted as, are not wrong to say that, regardless of environmental damage, mankind does need to mine resources to survive and the instinct to colonize new lands is inherent to the species. Saving the planet is a noble goal, but if the people don't live long enough to see it, what's the point?
• Central Theme: "And Man Grew Proud". Man can live with nature, even manipulate it to an extent. But man does not control nature.
• Crossover: Crossed over with a Crossover Alternate Universe version of The DCU in a 2023 comic, featuring the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny between Superman and Godzilla. Godzilla won.
• Denser and Wackier: Inverted. It's far more grounded than most Toho films about Kaijus fighting alongside one another.
• Everything's Better with Monkeys: Kong.
• HAD to Be Sharp: Kong. Rather than Go Mad From the Isolation, being the Last of His Kind forced him to become smarter and more creative in how he fought.
• Hollow World: Hollow Earth is thought to be where the Titans originate from.
• Human-Focused Adaptation: An existing issue with the Godzilla and King Kong franchises that gets carried over here. Indeed, "too many humans, not enough giant monsters" is a constant complaint aimed at this franchise.
• Last of His Kind:
  • Evidence points to Godzilla being such, his kind having possibly been wiped out in a war with the Great Apes.
  • Kong is the last of the Great Apes. Last of those on the surface that is.
• Let's You and Him Fight: Godzilla VS Kong.
• Not So Invincible After All: It's shown more than once that, despite all their awesome power, the Titans could be felled by humanity. But it's also shown to be in humanity's best interest to keep the benevolent(ish) Titans around.
• Our Titans Are Different: All Kaiju are referred to as "Titans", an umbrella term to describe "super-species" that evolved when Earth was an overt Death World constantly bombarded by radiation. On some level, they're considered Gaia's Vengeance, functioning as an immune system that maintains the balance of Earth's biosphere.
• Outside Context Villain: King Ghidorah. Scanning him, Monarch finds that nothing about him, physically or psychologically, lines up with the other Titans. Because he's not a Titan. He's an alien.
• Shared Universe
• Spiritual Antithesis: To the 2010s onwards Toho Godzilla films movies. In the broadsest sense, while Monsterverse Goji is a Destructive Saviour, the Toho films have returned Goji to being a destructive force.
  • The Monsterverse treats Godzilla as an allegory for natural nuclear power, likening him to a star in that he's an awesome, natural, power beyond humanity's ability to fully grasp. Shin Godzilla was an allegory for a nuclear disaster while Godzilla Minus One treated the monster as an allegory for nuclear weapons.
  • While all three takes reimagined Godzilla's behaviour in line with animalistic instincts and behaviour, Monsterverse Goji is an animal who knows of humans, navigating through cities around buildings when he can, taking the route of least resistance when he moves. Shin didn't even appear fully aware of where he was or what humans were, demolishing buildings as he walked while Minus One was a highly territorial animal, going out of his way to attack humans, viewing them as intruders on his territory.
  • As James noted in his Cinemassacre of Kong: Skull Island, the Monsterverse is also this in the King Kong front, being much Lighter and Softer than the Peter Jackson version while being Darker and Edgier than the 1933 and 1975 versions.
• Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: Godzilla VS Kong.
• Whole-Episode Flashback: Kong: Skull Island takes place in the 1970s.