There’s no question about the significant height difference between Godzilla and King Kong, but the gap between them may be narrowed by the time the two Titans clash in Godzilla vs. Kong. Directed by Adam Wingard, the fourth installment in the MonsterVerse will feature an epic showdown between the King of the Monsters and the King of Skull Island as Monarch investigates the origin of the Titans.
Though this is their first MonsterVerse meeting, this isn’t the first time Godzilla and Kong have fought. The 1962 Toho movie King Kong vs. Godzilla marked their first and only battle. Even then, Kong was traditionally smaller than the Japanese pop culture icon. Toho had to make some substantial changes so that Kong could fight on Godzilla’s level. Kong was also given a new power, and his size saw a massive increase, allowing the two to go toe-to-toe. Otherwise, Godzilla would have easily dwarfed King Kong.
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A similar size change is expected for Godzilla vs. Kong, and has already been foreshadowed by Godzilla: King of the Monsters director Michael Dougherty, who has pointed out that Kong was just an adolescent in 2017’s Kong: Skull Island, meaning that he still has some growing to do. A poster for Godzilla vs. Kong (via Gormaru) shows Kong with a beard, which is indicative of how much he’s aged (and grown in size) since his last MonsterVerse appearance.
So why is Kong so much smaller than Godzilla? Part of the reason has to do with the human element of the character. Kong’s size allows him to connect with humans in a way that Godzilla never could. Kong is capable of holding a woman in the palm of his hand. Also, Kong wasn’t originally designed for a dramatic confrontation with a monster as huge as Godzilla. If Kong was much bigger, there never would have been that iconic scene where he scales the Empire State Building. Regardless, Kong’s traditionally smaller stature will have to change for him to stand a chance against Godzilla.
In Kong: Skull Island, the Titan stood at 104 feet tall, which is a little more than a fourth of his opponent’s size. In King of the Monsters, Godzilla is 393 feet tall, so if the two were to fight in the 1970s, Godzilla would have towered over Kong like an adult to a small child. It remains to be seen how much bigger Kong will be when he returns, and if it’ll be enough. It seems unlikely that Kong will be able to grow another 300 feet between 1973 and 2020, so a size gap of some kind may still be present.
- Godzilla vs. Kong (2020) release date: Mar 13, 2020
