On August 24, 2025, I traveled with a group of fellow journalists to the Atlanta set ofGodzilla: King of the Monsters. The sequel to the 2014 movie,Godzilla, and set in the same universe as 2017’sKong: Skull Island, greatly expands not only the human cast, but, more importantly, expands the number of monsters. If you got giddy at “Let them fight,” inGodzilla, you are going to love it when Godzilla is squaring off against classic kaiju like Mothra, Rodan, and Ghidorah.
During my time on set, we learned a lot of cool stuff and also got to see a scene being filmed that has a large portion of the cast. Read on to learn aboutGodzilla: King of the Monsters.
I’ve been doing set visits for a while, but this is the first time I’ve ever seen an extended scene that involved a large group of actors having a conversation. While these scenes may not have the flair of a set piece, they’re incredibly important and surprisingly difficult. Not only is there a lot of dialogue to remember and information that needs to be conveyed to the audience, but also to keep the geography of the conversation intact. Scenes like this can be a nightmare for an editor since you have to juggle where to keep the focus of the scene and all the reaction shots from the actors.
In this scene, they’re at Monarch HQ and the scene involves characters played byKyle Chandler, Aisha Hinds, Ziyi Zhang, Thomas Middleditch, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Sally Hawkins, Ken Watanabe, andBradley Whitford. Hawkins is giving a presentation where she explained that a containment site in China was raided, Mothra escaped, and Dr. Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga) and her daughter Madison (Millie Bobby Brown), who are the estranged wife and daughter of Chandler’s character, Mark Russell, have been taken hostage by the villain (Charles Dance). Dance’s character is trafficking in Titan (aka kaiju) DNA. There’s also a communication device, the Orca, that lets you communicate with the titans, which pretty much turns them into a living atomic weapon. Dance’s character wants to capture Mothra alive, but Mark believes that Mothra is just a decoy.
The conflict between Mark and Emma is that Mark wants to see all the monsters destroyed, and Emma wants to protect them. Mark was brought in to Monarch to track the Orca and advise, but he’s just in it to rescue his daughter, Madison.
What’s cool about this scene is there are a lot of flubbed lines and you get to see how the actors push past them to keep the energy of the scene going. It’s a vital scene to the movie because even though I expect it will be trimmed somewhat, the scene informs us about the villain, why the monsters are important, and the protagonist’s motivation. You also get a glimpse of the large cast’s personality, and while no one goes to aGodzillamovie for the human actors, it’s still encouraging to see that everyone is still bringing their A-game.
Things to Know
We then moved on to the “War Room”, which is where you get to see the arc of the movie played out in concept art. The concept art gives you a sense of scale, and while you don’t know exactly what the creatures will look like, it points you in the right direction.
Michael Dougherty
Click herefor the full interview with Dougherty.
Kyle Chandler
O’Shea Jackson Jr.
Closing Thoughts
This is the second time I’ve done a set visit for aGodzillamovie, and it looks likeKing of the Monsterswill be a very different beast than the 2014 movie. Although like Edwards this is the first time Dougherty has tackled a blockbuster, he seems to have the same level of respect for the material and doesn’t seeGodzillaas something that needs to be radically reinvented as much as it needs to be honored. While the film will undoubtedly have a different feel than 2014’sGodzilla, from what I sawKing of the Monstersis going to be the epic brawl thatGodzillafans want to see, and I’m eager to check out the latest iteration for the long-running kaiju.
Godzilla: King of the Monstersopens May 31st.
