Godzilla X Kong releases this weekend! Despite its faults, and there are a lot of them, the Monsterverse series is a fun time, especially if you watch all of it in chronological order. Courtesy of Alasdair Stuart, here’s that order, and some Cliff notes on the important stuff from each instalment.

Skull Island (2017)

As the Vietnam war ends, Bill Randa, the then head of Monarch, gets sign off to redirect a unit of helicopter pilots on their way home to Skull Island. Carnage ensues.

One of the most fun entries so far, with a great cast, a great sense of place and tangible menace. It’s also tonally wacky in a way that the other movies have sometimes toyed with but that actually works here. John C. Reilly as a World War II pilot downed on Skull Island is a lovely combination of terrifying, hilarious and sad and the end scene gag is an all-time great.

That being said, it puts Tom Hiddleston and Brie Larson front and centre and does surprisingly little with both of them so it’s not all fun times. But it does set up some major elements of the universe.

  • Kong is inherently protective of his people. This gets explored and bulked out later, but basically Godzilla defends the eco-system and Kong defends certain humans.
  • The Hollow Earth is hinted at here and the Skullcrawlers are heavily implied to have come from it.
  • Godzilla, Rodan, Mothre and King Ghidorah are all established as having been in existence since pre-history.

Skull Island (2023)

Set in the early ’90s, this is a Netflix show that largely flew under the radar. Which is a shame because it’s great! The survivors of a shipwreck struggle to survive on Skull Island and run foul of mercenaries who are there for another survivor.

  • Kong actually likes humans quite a bit. Just not ones in helicopters who don’t show him respect.
  • Titans come in different sizes. Dog, one of the main characters here, is a mostly grown Dog Titan who is the size of a large pickup truck. Also adorable. Watch it for Dog.
  • The single best joke in the entire franchise is in this series. You’ll know it when you hear it.

Godzilla (2014)

Gareth Edwards’ update of the original King of the Monsters is honestly still the best movie in the series. It follows Godzilla being awakened by the accidental release of another pair of Titans and does so from the point of view of a bomb disposal expert called Ford Brody. Brody, played by Aaron Taylor Johnson, is a fun, straightforward hero who has some surprising links to Godzilla which get explored both here and in Monarch. The action scenes are all great, the sense of menace and dread is tangible and the movie sprints along. The closing fight in a hellish, devastated San Francisco is still one of the best in the series.

That being said, there are issues here too. Elizabeth Olsen is given nothing to do. Sally Hawkins even less. Literally the entire inciting incident is a woman being killed. Also Edwads is not a director who enjoys lightness of tone so the thing is grim as Hell for much of its runtime. Which fits but still, be aware going in. Here’s what you need to remember.

  • There have been no Titan incidents for some time. it’s implied that Monarch thought they’d killed Godzilla.
  • The Titans’ close relationship to radiation is established.
  • The Titans are undeniably noticed by the world. At least three major cities are craters by the time the credits roll.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)

This is so much fun. It’s pretty much the last gasp for the horror elements of the previous two movies and somehow marries them to the highest budget Saturday morning cartoon in history. The plot involves a group of eco-terrorists led by Charles Dance (who somehow is not playing the older version of Tom Hiddleston’s character from Skull Island) releasing Titans because we need to be wiped out for nature to heal. It’s a lovely, grim concept and it’s executed with some real flair. It’s also the last project in the series besides Monarch to bother to make its human characters interesting. Plus it puts some really fun elements into the world.

  • Titans are all over the world and Monarch has high tech facilities and a limitless budget. They study and imprison them.
  • Monarch have an anti-Godzilla unit nicknamed the G-Team. They’re great, and looked set to be regulars. We’ve never seen them again.
  • Ghidorah is an alien, the equal of Godzilla if not their superior and wants to rule the Titans. Rodan, an enormous bird Titan, is essentially Baldrick to his Edmund Blackadder.
  • THE HOLLOW EARTH! An idea toyed with in Skull Island is confirmed here as Godzilla uses tunnels under the surface of the ocean to move around.
  • Doctors Serizawa and Graham become the first Monarch scientists to turn up again. Neither of them make it out of the movie.
  • MOTHRA! And she’s adorable! And killed! Which isn’t a deal breaker!

Monarch (2023)

The first Monsterverse live action TV show followed two generations of Monarch scientists through the discovery of the Monsterverse. It takes some big chances, not the least of which is working in two time periods at once, and, brilliantly, casting Kurt Russell and Wyatt Russell as Lee Shaw, one of the main characters, in two different time periods. Here’s what you need to remember:

  • It’s possible time works differently in the Hollow Earth. Lee certainly experiences some major time dilation. It’s also very possible that ‘Axis Mundi’ as the realm they go to is referred to, isn’t the Hollow Earth. Or is part of the Hollow Earth or, my favourite, is a transitional dimension between the two.
  • Travel from the surface to the Hollow Earth is achieved via wormholes. These are activated, and it’s implied, stabilized by the presence of a Kaiju. It’s also loosely implied that only Godzilla stabilises the portals.
  • Private industry is very, very aware of the Titans. The series end with an expedition to Axis Mundi returning to the surface in 2017 and discovering that Apex Cybernetics have bought out the Skull Island facility.
  • Shaw’s pretty sensibly concluded Godzilla’s role is to keep the Hollow Earth’s endless parade of horrific denizens from making it to the surface. Given the ape/Godzilla war shown in Godzilla vs Kong that makes a ton of sense.

Godzilla vs Kong (2021)

A movie with a truly astonishing cast, an excellent director (Adam Wingard) and a script that somehow doesn’t do very much with either of them. That being said, the action sequences are very, very good and it moves the universe along in some interesting ways, especially the attempted commoditisation of the Titans, which speaks to the way they’ve been accepted despite being a constant existential threat.

Let’s move on before we realise just how much that resonates shall we?

  • The principal villain is Apex Cybernetics (good backwards continuity job, Monarch team!) who have put the severed head of Ghidorah in what amounts to a Godzilla mecha. It’s such a great idea! It does so much violence! Somehow nothing much comes of it!
  • The pilot is the son of Doctor Serizawa from the previous movies which is a really fun idea exactly nothing is done with. But along with the family legacy element of Monarch shows just how all-consuming the work is.
  • The ending sets up some really interesting long-term consequences for Titan incidents. A news broadcast about the aftermath of Titan attacks leaving the ecology in the region rampant and largely repaired is really interesting and ties into the Titans as part of the natural order idea that’s become progressively more important.

Godzilla X Kong is in cinemas now.

Godzilla Minus One is on home release from May and it’s incredible.

Shin Godzilla, which answers the question ‘What if The West Wing did a Godzilla story?’ is also out on disc right now and is also incredible.