Godzilla to Kong is out for almost a week at this point, but even then you probably had a glimpse of the film’s ‘twist’ well in advance – and not through leaks, but in both the marketing of the film or walk through a toy in Target. Surprise, sure, but for director Adam Wingard, it was part of a long history of dealing with the Hollywood machine.
You probably know that by now Godzilla to KongThe titular matchup isn’t the movie’s endgame – part of why the Titans have been brought together on an international scale through the manipulation of the shady cybernetics company Apex, starring Demián Bichir’s villain, Walter Simmons. By studying Godzilla and harnessing energies from both the remains of Ghidorah and the “Hollow Earth “ Which Titan life primarily stems from, Apex constructed humanity’s very own Titan in the form of Mechagodzilla, a tribute to the classic robot enemy of Toho long line of Kaiju movies.
Godzilla to Kong never was really about that titular fight, it would always be about the two working together to take on this new threat – unless you didn’t know until Warner Bros. and Legendary started taking more and more teasing shots of the creature in trailers, (not to mention toys with the almost Terminator-like take on Mechagodzilla began to be revealed by manufacturers in the run-up letting goIt is not a problem that is unique to Godzilla to Kong or Wingard, to be aware of that idea and that process as both a filmmaker and as a fan herself enabled him to let go of any concerns that his film was ‘spoiled’.
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“The whole spoiler process of a movie like this, at the end of the day it works or it doesn’t, whether you know that [Mechagodzilla’s] come or not. Of course you want the purest possible experience, ”the director recently told io9 during a video call‘For example, I will never forget when Star Wars: Episode One came out, I was so excited about that movie. That was the most hyped, anticipated movie of my entire life. And I’ll never forget that just before the movie was released, a few weeks before, they released the score on CD, and of course I bought it right away – what’s one of the track titles? “Qui-Gon’s funeral.” It’s like, ‘Really? You’re going to put that on the CD !? ”
Being aware of how marketing machines work on movies as gigantic as this was nothing new to Wingard – and if anything, Mechagodzilla was supposed to serve as a distraction to the things he did want to preserve it for the public. Fortunately, our spoilers aren’t that intense – I can’t believe there hasn’t been leaked who wins in the fight yet. That’s pretty amazing, that’s the most important thing. “the director continued.” The toy stuff … it leaked over a year ago – no, it was almost two years ago when the first toy stuff leaked, and that was really annoying because it so early. I mean, seriously guys? Is that what we are going to do? ‘ So, [Mechagodzilla’s] kind of the worst kept secret. “
And yet, because he himself had to become part of that process, that meant Wingard some of the hypersensitivity to “spoiler culture” which is now part of it highly corporatized fandom circles in popular culture. He knew that Mechagodzilla’s existence would not ruin it Godzilla to Kong, but fans-who had both greedily consumed everything about the movie in the run-up to release while also trying to minimize awareness of the plot of the movie-not.
“I know some people were angry with me online – probably rightly so – because I posted a picture of me with a Mechagodzilla toy,” Wingard continued. But the toy is currently in stock – you can buy it from Wal-Mart! The Funko version of him is out … this is no secret. I’m very illiterate on social media so I probably should have posted a spoiler page for it – that would probably have made people feel good, but … at the end of the day, I was specifically mentioned by Warner Bros. asked to post a photo of it [the toy]Well, you know, the thing is already there, so I did, and then you kind of realize that that might have upset some people. But you can’t please everyone. “
However, that doesn’t stop him from figuring out where the fan culture around his film was. “I like to go on Instagram and type in every now and then Godzilla to Kong, just to see what people are posting about it, ”Wingard revealed. “There was one person who posted four spoiler images before getting to the Chinese trailer who had a few [shots of Mechagodzilla] in there … and what was so funny about it is that every image says’ Spoiler! Do not look! – the next, ‘Spoiler! Serious, If You Do Not Wanna See This … ‘and it said that over and over again. And then they showed the picture. But when you look at the comments, people said, “How dare you spoil this for us!” It’s like … he told you there’s a spoiler! But also, I’m like, if you’re on my page before Godzilla to Kong, you know Mechagodzilla is in this movie. Everybody know he’s in the movie. He’s in the trailer. The first trailer! So it’s pretty funny. “
Godzilla to Kong is unlike anything Wingard has ever dealt with in his directorial oeuvre in terms of scale and Hollywood animus. But it’s been an interesting process for him, even beyond the perspective of directing a movie of its size, scale and legacy.
“I’m still learning what people’s expectations are,” admitted Wingard. “Because the last thing I want is to diminish someone’s experience in the movie, but … at the end of the day, these movies are just too bigWhen you’re dealing with merchandising and stuff, it’s just impossible to control the leaks. I remember asking early [GvK producer] Alex Garcia, like, before anything got out … ‘What do you think it will be? How do you think this will come out there? ‘And he just said,’ It’s always the toy ‘. For some reason, it always comes out through the toys. “
It’s something Wingard will likely have to deal with again once he has a hybrid CGI /animated Thunder cats movie, but for now, Godzilla to Kong is in theaters and stream exclusively on HBO Max in the US.
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