The 2020s has been a great time to be a kaiju enthusiast so far. With WBD’s Godzilla vs. Kong finally witnessing the two beloved Kaijus going against each other and Toho earning an Oscar win for Godzilla Minus One, things have been going great for the king of Monsters. And not long after Toho’s accomplishment with Minus One, many are enthralled to witness the sequel to 2021’s Godzilla Vs. Kong, which is set to hit the big screens in a few days.
However, not everyone is cheerful about the forthcoming feature following Millie Bobby Brown’s absence, who has been an integral part of the MonsterVerse releases. Reflecting on the drama surrounding her absence, director Adam Wingard cleared the air on why she wasn’t brought back in the sequel.
Millie Bobby Brown’s Absence Had to Do with Adam Wingard’s Vision for the Sequel
Since rising to stardom, thanks to Stranger Things, Millie Bobby Brown has become one of the most in-demand young actors in the realm of Hollywood. Following her extremely busy schedule, many initially assumed her scheduling conflicts might’ve played a part in her exclusion from The New Empire. However, director Adam Wingard, who also helmed the previous entry, which saw Brown reprising her part as Madison Russell, revealed that he purposefully left her character out.
Speaking to Digital Spy, Wingard reasoned that Madison’s story was already wrapped up in the previous entry, stressing that he was aiming for more simplicity with this one.
“It just felt like we wrapped up her King of the Monsters arc in the last movie. When it came to designing the story for this film, my motto the entire time was simplicity is key.”
He also emphasized taking a more simplistic approach with the sequel, giving room to tell a more intimate story with a smaller group of characters.
Adam Wingard Wanted The New Empire to Be Different From Previous MonsterVerse Entries
While the past features in the Monsterverse have lingered over a huge group of characters, Wingard wanted to take an opposite route with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. The director explained that by emphasizing simplicity, they were aiming to make the story more intimate by making the group of characters smaller in order to make the series feel different from its predecessor.
He explained:
“If you look at a lot of the MonsterVerse movies, a lot of the films have a whole lot of characters to them and that’s always been a cool approach. But with this film, we’re five movies in and you have to innovate and do things you’ve never seen before, even the approach to the structure of the story and the characters was new. We wanted to take a more intimate dive, and these were the characters that just made the most sense when telling Kong’s story in Hollow Earth that’s the catalyst to everything.”
Although it’s unfortunate to not have Millie Bobby Brown return, considering her character survived the last feature, the upcoming inclusions in the Monsterverse could see Madison return eventually.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire will hit the big screens on 29 March 2024.
