Godzilla x Kong’s New Monsters, Explained

If you’re in the mood for some monster mayhem, a giant fire-breathing lizard and a humongous ape have a gift for you. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire has finally arrived, and with it comes another round of visual overload and everyone’s favorite titans duking it out. But our monsters aren’t alone this time; director Adam Wingard already took the franchise into more outlandish territory than ever with how Godzilla vs. Kong so thoroughly explored Hollow Earth, home of the Titans and most of Kong’s ancestors.

But Wingard goes even further this time, with new creatures specifically created for this film that seem almost destined to become fan favorites. Along with the return of beloved fighters from previous installments, giant monsters are in no short supply in The New Empire. As such, we’re taking a look at the coolest of the new Titans and determining which ones could eventually join the Godzilla/Kong Hall of Fame.

New Titans and Apes Alike in Godzilla x Kong

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Of course, the most significant new addition is the film’s main villain, the Skar King. Most of the plot revolves around discovering more members of Kong’s kind deep within Hollow Earth, except these aren’t nearly as endearing as our beloved icon. These apes are hellbent on total world domination, and none of them are nastier than the dark threat of their leader, the Skar King, a monstrous orangutan/chimpanzee hybrid with a trigger-hair temper and a deadly whip made from the spine of a Titan.

He serves as a fantastic foil for everyone’s favorite giant ape. While Kong is a vicious but ultimately benevolent ruler, the Skar King is nothing short of a tyrant, having enslaved a Titan and eager to intimidate his own kind into doing his bidding if it means accumulating more power. As established through his backstory, humans and Titans once lived in a peaceful balance until Skar started a war against Godzilla, seeing the surface world as his to dominate. Godzilla himself promptly banished him and his army into the depths of Hollow Earth, and they lay dormant for thousands of years, seeking their revenge, until Kong found them.

The other main villain is fittingly an evil counterpart to Godzilla – Shimo, a female reptilian kaiju, held as a captive and forced to do most of Skar’s bidding. She’s even designed similarly to our favorite giant lizard, complete with spikes and spine plates. Best of all, she boasts a deadly frost breath, seemingly even stronger than Godzilla’s atomic breath and powerful enough to bring the threat of a possible new ice age, as seen in the climax. She’s deadly enough that Godzilla is forced to power up throughout the film to even stand a fighting chance.

However, she’s only a pawn to the Skar King’s larger goals, and indeed, there’s a crystal in the King’s whip that allows him to mind-control Shimo. When the young ape Suko (we’ll get to him soon) shatters the crystal in the final battle, Shimo joins our heroes and turns on her master, freezing him solid so that Kong can deliver the final blow. Kong promptly takes Skar’s throne, promising a more benevolent rule, and it appears that the now-freed Shimo will be by his side.

New Stragglers and Sidekicks in Godzilla x Kong

Even outside these two new big threats, The New Empire has a stacked lineup of fighters, some benevolent and others malevolent, some new and some returning. Without question, the standout in the benevolent camp is Suko, a young miniature ape who quickly becomes an ally to Kong as he ventures deeper into Hollow Earth. Like most of his kind, Suko detests his leader, but unlike them, he sides with his new friend as the Titans clash. His presence suggests the possibility for humans and Titans to find a more benevolent coexistence, with the peaceful Kong as the latter group’s leader, hopefully to be explored in a later sequel in the MonsterVerse.

A more evil creature, Scylla, is prominently featured early in the film in a faceoff with Godzilla as he threatens the surface world. Scylla, a giant armored cephalopod, first appeared in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, awakened by Ghidorah and sent on a destructive rampage around the world. While she later becomes more benevolent after Godzilla usurps her leader and becomes the new “alpha,” when we see her in The New Empire, she’s back to her old destructive self. The opening credits feature her rampage across Rome until Godzilla stops and kills her in a typically gruesome manner.

But the most exciting return of all is everyone’s favorite giant insect monster, Mothra. While initially killed off in King of the Monsters protecting Godzilla from Ghidorah, the film’s end revealed the discovery of a mysterious egg. Sure enough, Mothra is reborn in all her majestic glory as the climax of The New Empire approaches, eager to assist Godzilla and Kong in their battle against the Skar King. Thankfully, she survives this time and helps restore the Iwi kingdom’s protective barrier.

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A Solid Lineup of Fighters

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire gives monster movie fans exactly what they’re hoping for – Titan carnage up the wazoo and a whole plethora of exciting new creatures for our kaiju icons to take on. Most of the new additions fully deliver on their promise; the Skar King, in particular, is an exciting new villain who quickly proves a match for our heroes, as is Shimo.

Thankfully, as shown by the likes of Suko, the creative team didn’t skimp on the more benevolent creatures, and they hit the right balance between creepy and endearing, like all movie monsters should. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is playing in theaters now.