By selecting Hedorah to fight the new king of the Hollow Earth in Kong 2, the MonsterVerse can properly continue the stories and themes from its previous movies, like Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Godzilla vs. Kong.
For the time being, it’s not clear if Legendary has plans to make more MonsterVerse films, whether it be for Godzilla or Kong. But given that the movie did perform well at the box office despite the circumstances, either Titan receiving another solo movie is on the table. In the case of Kong in particular, a sequel for him is sure to be different than any other King Kong story that’s ever been brought to the big screen. That’s all due to the events of Godzilla vs. Kong, which made Skull Island uninhabitable and relocated the giant ape to the hidden Hollow Earth world beneath the surface, which he now rules. A new Kong movie would presumably center on the Titan lording over this massive, unexplored domain and protecting it from a new MonsterVerse threat.
Since Kong doesn’t have a developed rogues’ gallery, there’s a good chance that the MonsterVerse will pull from Toho’s Godzilla library when picking Kong’s next villain. As for who that could be, the best choice is arguably Hedorah from the Showa era of Godzilla films. Also known as the Smog Monster, the creature was introduced as an alien being who feeds off pollution in 1971’s Godzilla vs. Hedorah. Hedorah’s very existence in the movie was meant to send a message about the dangers of pollution and the damage humanity has carelessly done to the Earth. Because of the humans’ poor treatment of the planet, Hedorah was able to increase his own power by absorbing pollution.
Though different to the villains that the MonsterVerse has already used, Hedorah fits well with a certain theme that’s become central to the MonsterVerse, which is this idea that humanity is responsible for most of Earth’s problems. It’s been present at least to an extent in every MonsterVerse movie to date. In Godzilla: King of the Monsters, for example, Ghidorah’s peaceful slumber could have gone on for centuries if the eco-terrorists had just left him alone. And Godzilla vs. Kong’s Mechagodzilla was constructed by humans who opposed Godzilla’s dominance.
In Kong 2, Hedorah can be the perfect villain to continue this environmental theme. Like Ghidorah and Mechagodzilla, his rise could result in a situation where a force of nature has to clean up humanity’s mess. Plus, Hedorah works with what the MonsterVerse is currently doing with Kong. Right now, Kong is experiencing a happy life in the Hollow Earth, a beautiful place untouched by human civilization. But now that the world knows about it, it can be exploited and commercialized in all sorts of ways. It could be that when expanding into the Hollow Earth, humans may inadvertently create a doorway for Hedorah to follow them. If that happens, Hedorah’s arrival in Hollow Earth could represent humanity poisoning (and perhaps ruining) another thriving ecosystem. It would be up to Kong to prevent such a disaster from occurring.
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