The Entire MonsterVerse Timeline Explained
When Gareth Edwards' "Godzilla" stomped into theaters in 2014, it was hard to envision anything like what the modern MonsterVerse franchise has become. The previous attempt at an American "Godzilla" had gone disastrously in 1998, and shared movie universes were a dime a dozen with rival studios scrambling to mimic the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And yet, a decade later, the MonsterVerse is still standing proudly amidst the rubble of so many would-be competitor franchises.
What started as a simple attempt at turning Japan's favorite kaiju into a U.S. blockbuster now encompasses five films — including two smash-hit Godzilla and King Kong crossovers — and two acclaimed TV series. There's also a series of supplementary books and comics. The timeline of the series itself is even larger, as it encompasses thousands of years of in-universe storytelling complete with hidden worlds, time dilation, secret government organizations, and dozens of primary characters.
Though 10 years may not be that long in Hollywood time, it's been enough to firmly cement the MonsterVerse alongside its family-friendly action blockbuster contemporaries. Keeping track of everything that's happened across the series at this point is a task in itself, but don't worry — we're here to help. This is the entire MonsterVerse timeline, explained.
The ancient history of the Hollow Earth
To start at the beginning of the MonsterVerse timeline is to go all the way back to before the rise of modern human civilization, diving deep beneath the surface of the Earth at the same time. The Titans, as all subspecies of enormous kaiju-esque creatures are known in the MonsterVerse, are believed to have originated within the Hollow Earth. This inner world, thick with radiation, is accessible from the surface only through a select few physical portals.
While Titans can travel between the two worlds safely, doing so is incredibly dangerous and difficult for humans because of the flip in gravity and the nature of portals themselves. In ancient times, when the Earth's surface was richer with radiation, Titans roamed freely between the two realms. They coexisted in the Hollow Earth with an early human group known as the Iwi, who worshiped the Titans as gods of a sort. Various rivalries emerged between Titan subspecies — most notably between Godzilla's kind and that of Kong.
The Skar King's war of domination
One of the most ambitious and dangerous Titans of the ancient era was a massive primate ruler known as the Skar King. As the leader of Kong's Titan subspecies in the Hollow Earth, he wielded an immense amount of power and influence over Titans and Iwi alike. A tyrant, Skar King determined that his kingdom was insufficient and set out to conquer both the entire Hollow Earth and the surface world, bringing the entirety of the planet under his rule. This led to a massive conflict, with his Titan ape army battling any who would defy him. Godzilla and his species became the biggest threat to the Skar King, and the war raged.
One of the Skar King's most dangerous weapons was another Titan, a giant reptile called Shimo with control over the cold and ice. Part of Skar King's plan to dominate the surface led to Shimo ushering in what became the last great Ice Age. In the end, Godzilla was able to defeat the Skar King, locking him and his allies away deep in the Hollow Earth. It wouldn't be the last time that the two would face off, but their next meeting was many, many years later.
The age of Titans ends
As the surface of the Earth became less radioactive — providing less sustenance to the Titans who voyaged there — the massive creatures who ruled the planet for so long began to vanish from the outer world. Some went into extended hibernation, while others simply returned to the Hollow Earth for good. This shift in the natural power balance eventually allowed for the rise of modern human civilization on the surface.
Most human history in the MonsterVerse is the same as our own in the real world, but with a few minor exceptions, mostly tied to fictional locations like Skull Island. Not all Titans were gone for good, and travel between the surface and the Hollow Earth remained possible for the giant beasts. However, the worlds of Titans and humans generally remained separate for many thousands of years. It was only in the 20th century — the beginning of the atomic age — that new radioactivity and other phenomena brought about the return of the Titans.
1945-1952: Titans return and Monarch takes off
In the wake of World War II, Titan activity on the surface started to pick up again, but it took decades for the general public to get wise. The Apple TV+ series "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" details the origins of what eventually became Monarch, a global organization with roots in the United States dedicated to studying and defending humanity from the Titans.
Though early MonsterVerse supplementary materials claimed that Monarch was founded immediately after World War II, it really started with three people: U.S. Army Colonel Lee Shaw and scientists Keiko Miura and Bill Randa, who met in the Philippines in 1952. Shaw, still low in the officer ranks at the time, was assigned as a protection detail for Miura while she investigated rumors of a Titan known as the Ion Dragon. During their jungle expedition, the duo bumped into Randa, who was on his own journey after experiencing a strange Titan encounter years prior while serving on the U.S.S. Lawton.
After setting out together, the new trio discovered the Ion Dragon and barely escaped with their lives. Determined to unearth the truth of these strange, gargantuan creatures, they continued working together and eventually formed Monarch as a subdivision of the U.S. military.
1954: Godzilla's awakening and the Bikini Atoll confrontation
Two years after the encounter with the Ion Dragon, Godzilla was woken up by a low-traveling nuclear submarine in the Pacific Ocean. He made his presence known by attacking other nuclear subs from both the U.S. and the Soviet Union, regaining some of his old strength by consuming the radiation.
Prior to the reemergence of Godzilla, Monarch's Titan research was largely ignored by the larger U.S. military. However, the danger posed by this new creature sparked particular interest among Army brass, leading to a confrontation at Bikini Atoll. The scene was shown a couple of different times prior to "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters," but the TV series provides the most definitive version of events. Using a hydrogen bomb as bait, the army lured Godzilla out of the sea and onto land, then detonated the explosive in the hopes of killing him.
When the dust settled, Godzilla was nowhere to be found. The Army celebrated, but Keiko mourned the Titan's death. Of course, it was later revealed that a single hydrogen bomb to the face isn't nearly enough to kill Godzilla. He came back even bigger and stronger after the Bikini Atoll encounter, much to the military's chagrin.
1955-1959: Monarch expansion and the death of Keiko Miura
After the Bikini Atoll face-off, Monarch continued to conduct Titan research, but the supposed death of Godzilla led to the U.S. government losing interest once again. Lee, Keiko, and Bill fought for further funding in 1955, but the Cold War was seen by the military as a much more urgent issue. During these scenes in "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters," we also meet Keiko's son Hiroshi and it becomes clear that a love triangle involving the three Monarch members is taking shape.
Around this time, an investigation on Japan's Hateruma Island revealed that Godzilla was actually still alive — a fact that Keiko urged Lee to hide from the military in order to protect the Titan. Lee begrudgingly agreed, and the team decided to pursue other methods of securing funding, including the construction of a comprehensive map of global Titan activity. Lee and Keiko couldn't seem to get their timing right, and she ended up marrying Bill instead. Lee ultimately secured more funding and support by revealing the truth of Godzilla's survival.
In 1959, Bill, Lee, and Keiko investigated potential Titan activity in Kazakhstan. Their hunt led them to an abandoned nuclear power plant strangely devoid of extraneous radiation. The reason? A colony of Endoswarmer Titans, which had clearly been feeding on the energy. In a tragic turn of events, Keiko got taken by the Endoswarmers and was presumed dead.
1962: Monarch's first voyage to Axis Mundi
In the wake of Keiko's death, both Lee and Bill poured themselves into their work, feeling responsible for her grim fate. In 1962, Monarch prepared its first voyage down into what would eventually become known as the Hollow Earth. Using the map that he created with Keiko, Bill identified a rift point that he believed must connect the surface world to another realm where the Titans dwell. Lee volunteered to lead the expedition, which required the summoning of a Titan to activate and open the rift.
Things went horribly wrong almost immediately. Though Bill's research was on the right track, the Monarch team was massively unprepared for the reality of the Titan world. The craft designed to travel through the rift didn't actually reach the Hollow Earth directly, landing instead in a middle point between the two worlds that would become known as Axis Mundi. Time moves differently in this space than it does on the surface and the Hollow Earth, and elements of both sides are represented in the ecology.
Sadly, the craft crashed and Lee's whole team was wiped out in a Titan attack. He eventually managed to get back home via another rift, but, because of the time dilation, he arrived in 1982 — a full two decades later — and was informed that Bill had died in the time since his departure.
1973: The journey to Skull Island and Bill Randa's death
With Lee Shaw trapped in Axis Mundi, Bill Randa continued to drive Monarch's research and raise Hiroshi as his own son. As depicted in "Kong: Skull Island," one of the best King Kong movies, he convinced the government to send him and a military detachment on a mission to map Skull Island — a strange, uncharted location in the Pacific Ocean. The year was 1973, and the trip went bad almost immediately when Kong (a descendant of the Skar King's Titan subspecies and the protector of an Iwi tribe on the island) attacked the deployment after they began bombing the terrain to study it.
The survivors learned about Kong and the evil Skullcrawler monsters that killed his parents from the Iwi and a stranded World War II pilot named Hank Marlow. According to a scene in "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters," at some point during the voyage through the jungle, Bill got cut off from the rest of the group and was chased toward the shore by monsters. Fearing for his life, he recorded a quick message to Hiroshi on his camera, apologizing for not being more present in his life. He then tossed a waterproof bag full of research into the sea in the hope that it might be found one day.
Sure enough, Bill died soon after, being tragically devoured by a Skullcrawler. Kong eventually triumphed over the biggest of the Skullcrawlers and reasserted himself as the king of the island. The survivors of the expedition made their way home, and Monarch's work continued.
1982: Lee Shaw returns from Axis Mundi
When Lee Shaw found his way back to the surface after his terrifying Axis Mundi journey, only a week had passed for him, but 20 years had in fact gone by in the human world. He was sent to a Monarch-ran medical facility and was not allowed to leave, though he refused to speak to anyone about what he knew aside from Bill Randa himself. Eventually, a grown Hiroshi managed to calm Lee down (though not before he attempted a violent escape from the facility). Hiroshi explained to him that Bill was dead and helped Lee grapple with the shock of what had happened to him.
Lee knew way too much for Monarch to simply release him back into the public. As such, he was taken off duty and put up in Futaba Resting Home Social Corporation, a retirement community close to Mount Fuji in Japan. Of course, his every move was monitored by Monarch. A steady diet of pills and the grim reality of his new life in quasi-captivity eventually set in, and he lived there for many years in a state of depression.
1990s: Another Skull Island adventure and a female MUTO
One of the lesser-known entries in the MonsterVerse is the animated Netflix series "Skull Island," which takes place in the 1990s. As the title suggests, the show follows another expedition to Kong's Pacific home, this one involving independent parties rather than Monarch agents. A group of monster hunters voyaging near Skull Island run into a castaway named Annie, who's fleeing a mercenary deployment for unknown reasons. An eventual confrontation is interrupted by a sea monster attack, leading to the whole group getting stranded on Skull Island and eventually encountering Kong.
As of yet, the events of "Skull Island" haven't really connected to the larger MonsterVerse or the story of Monarch. However, it's still a fun, beautifully animated side story, complete with new monsters and the most complete depiction of Kong's home we've seen yet. Not everyone makes it off the island alive at the end of the show, but those who do could still show up in a future MonsterVerse story. As the 1990s drew to a close, a female MUTO (an acronym for Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism — basically a giant reptile-bug species) hatched, causing a meltdown at a Japanese nuclear power station.
2012: The origins of Apex Cybernetics
In 2012, two years before Godzilla's emergence in 2014, a company called Applied Experimental Technologies (AET) began heavily recruiting for a series of top-secret research operations. Driven by CEO Walter Simmons, the company's mission was to develop the technology to meld with and control animal minds. After G-Day, Simmons focused this tech on how to control Titans on the cognitive level, hoping to re-establish humankind as the dominant species on Earth.
The early days of these efforts are shown in flashbacks in "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters." We see how May Olowe-Hewitt (real name Corah Mateo) was recruited for AET and compelled to do research and development work on vague technologies. When she discovered the cruel animal experiments being conducted by the company, she sabotaged AET's data, fled, and began living under a false identity. AET later rebranded as Apex Cybernetics and continued its neural-tech development, though it took many years for those plans to come to full fruition.
2014: Godzilla makes his first public appearance
In the 60 years following humanity's discovery of Godzilla, Monarch studied him and other gigantic creatures from ages past, including the MUTO. Male MUTOs are around 200 feet tall and can fly. Female MUTOs are even larger (about 300 feet) and move around like gorillas, with two powerful arms and two smaller legs. They were also ancient enemies of Godzilla's species, so, naturally, Godzilla was none too pleased when a male and female MUTO appeared on the scene.
The aforementioned female actually hatched in 1999 but was held in captivity in the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository in Nevada. Meanwhile, the male hatched in 2014 and headed toward Hawaii, presumably for one last bachelor weekend before meeting his mate. Well, Godzilla was having none of that, and surfaced for the first time to face off against the male MUTO in the Aloha State. Their battle was brief, but important. Humanity learned what the government had known for six decades: Monsters were real.
2014: Godzilla takes down the MUTOs
The female MUTO stomped her way across the Nevada desert, while the male flew from Hawaii across the Pacific with Godzilla on his trail. The two MUTOs made their romantic rendezvous in San Francisco. Meanwhile, the military decided it was a good idea to blow up all three monsters with a nuclear warhead. This didn't turn out so well: The male MUTO stole the nuke and gave it to his bride as a wedding present. After a little kaiju coitus, the female MUTO laid her eggs around the warhead. The couple looked like they were going to keep on reproducing, which naturally would have spelled the end of humanity forever. Good thing Godzilla arrived in San Francisco to stop them.
Godzilla fought with the kaiju couple, but the two-on-one proved too much. Thankfully, the military provided a distraction by blowing up the MUTO nest. Godzilla subdued the female with his nuclear breath and tail-swiped the male into a building, impaling him on the beams. Before the female could crush the U.S. Navy Officer who blew up her nest, Godzilla opened her mouth and shot his nuclear beam right down her throat. Godzilla collapsed from exhaustion, but he woke up the next day to swim off into the sea, awaiting humanity to call him in their hour of need.
2015: The Search for Hiroshi Randa
"Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" primarily follows Cate and Kentaro Randa, two half-siblings who share a father in Hiroshi Randa. Cate experienced the violence of G-Day first-hand in San Francisco, and she believed her father to be dead. She then discovered the key to an apartment that he apparently owned in Tokyo. When she arrived there, she learned that her father had been hiding a secret second wife, child, and life from Cate and her mother.
Eventually, Cate and her half-brother Kentaro reconciled enough to work together. They discovered Hiroshi's secret work with Monarch — work directly connected to the data that Bill Randa tossed into the ocean just before his death on Skull Island back in 1973 (it was later recovered by Japanese fishermen). This kicked off a globetrotting search for their father, who they came to believe was still alive. In order to find him, they recruited Lee Shaw, busting him out of his Monarch-monitored retirement home, as well as Mae, Kentaro's ex-girlfriend who secretly used to work for AET.
Monarch began chasing the group because of the sensitive information they possessed. Their adventure led them to Alaska and the discovery of a dangerous new Titan called the Frost Vark, back to San Francisco, and eventually to Algeria. This is where they finally found Hiroshi — right before an experiment he was conducting summoned Godzilla.
2015: Monarch goes public
It turned out that Mae had been spying on the rest of the group and reporting to Monarch in the hope that the organization would help her to clear her name. Mae was then captured by AET. In order to save her, Cate cut a deal with Monarch and promised to help them understand Hiroshi and Lee's Titan data. This created a sort of partnership between the tech conglomerate and Monarch, the ramifications of which are seen in "Godzilla vs. Kong."
The confrontation with AET also caused a false Titan alert to be sounded. As a result, Monarch decided to go public, announcing its presence and mission to the world. Around this time, Lee went rogue with a faction of Monarch expats who wanted to bomb the Hollow Earth rifts in order to prevent future Titan attacks. He returned to the Kazakhstan power plant where Keiko supposedly died and tried to close the rift there, but, after a confrontation with Cate, Endoswarmers appeared and pulled both of them (as well as Mae) down into Axis Mundi.
2015: Another Axis Mundi expedition
Fortunately, Mae and Lee landed close to each other in Axis Mundi, but Cate was separated from them. As she tried to find them in the misty forest, she encountered a shocking figure instead — Keiko Miura, alive and well. She had hardly aged at all since her disappearance, due to Axis Mundi's time distortion effects. To Keiko, it felt like she had only been stranded for about two months. When she and Cate found Lee and Mae, though, she quickly realized how much time had passed on the surface and began to mourn the time that she had lost.
Together, the four came up with a plan to use Lee's original Monarch expedition pod to get back to the surface, summoning a Titan to open the rift and pull them up. Unfortunately, the pod malfunctioned and they ended up attracting an Ion Dragon more quickly than expected. Things got even more chaotic when Godzilla then showed up. In order to make sure that Keiko, her granddaughter Cate, and Mae all got back to the surface safely, Lee made a heroic effort to fix the pod. It worked, but he wound up stranded in Axis Mundi. When the new trio arrived on the surface, two full years had passed.
2017: A new facility on Skull Island
At the end of "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" Season 1, Cate, Keiko, and Mae emerge from Axis Mundi in the middle of a new facility that has been constructed in their absence on Skull Island (the location is revealed by an appearance from Kong later in the scene, who seems to have grown substantially since his appearance in "Kong: Skull Island"). The year is now 2017. Keiko has a tearful reunion with her now-adult son Hiroshi, but the moment is cut short by the revelation that this is actually an Apex Cybernetics facility, not one run by Monarch.
In "Godzilla vs. Kong," the two groups worked together, seemingly for the protection of humanity, but actually so that Apex could use Monarch's resources to advance its own sinister agenda. Kentaro explains to Cate and Mae that he and Hiroshi had limited options to help get them back from Axis Mundi, as Apex had resources unavailable to Monarch. Without the contributions of the shady company helping to locate the group underground, they may never have gotten home safely. Still, the scene ends with a grim foreshadowing of what will come of Apex's meddling.
2019: Ghidorah rises and Godzilla returns
For five years following his fight with the world's biggest kaiju power couple in San Francisco, Godzilla took it easy in the sea (well, not according to the tie-in comic "Godzilla: Aftershock," in which Godzilla battles a new Titan called MUTO Prime, but we're sticking with the films.) In that time, Monarch went mainstream, building bases worldwide to monitor Titans — including a base in the Pacific Ocean, where Godzilla slumbered. That is, until an eco-terrorist organization concocted a plot to awaken Titans using a monster-calling machine known as the Orca.
They started with the worst of them all, Monster Zero, aka King Ghidorah, a fellow alpha predator rival to Godzilla. We're not telling eco-terrorists how to eco-terrorize or anything, but maybe next time start smaller? Anyway, Godzilla was awakened from his nap and made his way to Antarctica, where Ghidorah was entombed in snow and ice. Soon after the revived Ghidorah rose from the ice, Godzilla came to say "No sir!" (in monster speak) — his first appearance on the surface in five years. The Titans tangled, until Ghidorah got the upper hand, escaping to pillage and plunder like a kaiju Genghis Khan.
2019: Ghidorah becomes king
For their next move, the eco-terrorists went to Mexico to awaken Rodan from his volcanic penthouse. Alas, Ghidorah had the same idea — though maybe after millennia spent in ice he just wanted an all-inclusive beach vacation? Ghidorah and Rodan engaged in a brief tussle, which didn't turn out well for the much-smaller firebird. After temporarily taking out Rodan, Ghidorah turned his sight (well, sights, since he has three heads) on Monarch's flying fortress, the Argo. However, just before Ghidorah could catch the Argo, Godzilla pounced from the ocean and pulled him under the water.
The sea monster Godzilla was in his element at this stage, managing to rip off one of Ghidorah's three heads. At this point, humanity launched a secret weapon known as the Oxygen Destroyer in a throwaway bit of fan service referencing the original film, presumably killing Godzilla. However, King Ghidorah survived (given he's a space monster and doesn't need oxygen), standing athwart a volcano and summoning the other Titans from around the world.
2019: Dr. Serizawa sacrifices his life to revive Godzilla
In a twist that everyone saw coming, Godzilla survived the use of the Oxygen Destroyer and went to recuperate deep in the bowels of the Earth. The trouble was, it would have taken him about a decade to get back into fighting shape, and there probably wouldn't have been an Earth to save at that point, as Ghidorah and his gang of Titans were wreaking havoc on the surface. Ghidorah, by assuming Godzilla's mantle as the alpha Titan, had thrown the natural order out of whack.
Godzilla needed to get his act together if the planet was to survive, and the humans took drastic steps to make this happen. Dr. Ishiro Serizawa, head of Monarch, piloted a submersible down to Godzilla's lair. There he discovered the ruins of an ancient race who worshiped the Titans and built a temple to the most powerful of all. Godzilla was enjoying a volcanic spa day when Dr. Serizawa proceeded to blow up a nuke in his face. It worked out pretty well: Godzilla emerged fully healed, bigger and more powerful than ever.
2019: Godzilla goes thermonuclear and becomes King
Ghidorah's kingship over the monsters had gone to his heads, with the space dragon turning Washington D.C. into an apocalyptic cesspool. However, he got lured to Boston, not by the draw of a delicious bowl of clam chowder, but by the Orca being blasted by Madison Russell, daughter of the Monarch scientists Mark and Emma Russell. Ghidorah was just about to roast Madison with his lightning beams when Godzilla's nuclear blast knocked him down.
Godzilla and Mothra then took on Ghidorah and Rodan in a tag-team match for the ages. Ghidorah overpowered Godzilla, so Mothra sacrificed herself, transferring her life energy (just go with it) to Godzilla. Godzilla then went thermonuclear thanks to the cocktail of Mothra's energy and Dr. Serizawa's bomb to the face. With all this power, he was able to stomp a mudhole into Ghidorah and walk it dry. With Ghidorah disintegrated, Godzilla stood victorious and Titans around the world arrived to bend the knee to the new King of the Monsters.
2024: Godzilla pummels Pensacola
By the year 2024, five years after the battle of Boston, Godzilla had tamed the Titans and the world was at peace under his reign. Meanwhile, the King of Skull Island, Kong, was being kept in a giant artificial playpen. Why go to the considerable expense to keep him contained? Because otherwise, Godzilla would come to Skull Island to demand his fellow alpha bend the knee. And, as Kong's keeper, Dr. Ilene Andrews, said: "Kong bows to no one."
In the 70 years since Godzilla was discovered, and 10 years after he went public, he had never attacked humanity. That all changed when the alpha Titan surfaced in Pensacola, Florida, and it wasn't for Spring Break. Godzilla attacked a facility of Apex Cybernetics, knowing they were constructing a secret weapon. While Pensacola was the site of Godzilla's first "unprovoked" attack (or so humanity thought), it sadly didn't result in Godzilla vs. Florida Man.
2024: Godzilla tries to sink Kong
Apex CEO Walter Simmons wanted to launch a voyage to the Hollow Earth to access the same powerful source of energy that gave Godzilla his radioactive beam. However, he needed a Titan to do it. Enter Kong. Dr. Ilene Andrews was convinced to move Kong, given his Skull Island enclosure was under assault from a massive superstorm and wouldn't last much longer. However, she still played it safe and charted a course outside of Godzilla's normal stomping grounds for Kong's overseas journey.
This plan didn't work out, because, well, the king goes where he wants to go: Godzilla showed up to attack the Navy transport and kill Kong. He almost did, too, nearly drowning the big ape. However, he was temporarily stunned by depth charges. In the end, the Navy had to shut down all its ships to convince Godzilla he had won — which, let's be honest, he had. Godzilla left the flotilla in ruins and Kong on his big hairy back, his position as the alpha Titan secured.
2024: Godzilla attacks King Kong in Hong Kong
Kong survived his first fight with Godzilla and made it to the Hollow Earth. He discovered a throne room of his ancestors — as well as a really sweet ax made from one of Godzilla's spikes, which would come in handy soon. Meanwhile, Godzilla surfaced again in Hong Kong, once again heading toward an Apex Cybernetics facility. However, Godzilla got distracted from his mission of taking out Apex's superweapon when he sensed a disturbance in the Hollow Earth.
Godzilla charged up and used his radioactive beam to drill a hole into the center of the Earth. This may be one of the coolest things he's ever done — even cooler than the time he slid on his tail to dropkick a napalm-spitting giant roach in "Godzilla vs. Megalon." Anyway, Godzilla's beam made it from Hong Kong to King Kong in the Hollow Earth. Armed with his sick Godzilla spike ax, Kong used the hole to climb up (or down?) from the Earth's core to Hong Kong to go for round two with the King of the Monsters.
2024: Godzilla conquers Kong
The main event: Godzilla vs. Kong. With his ax in hand, Kong was more of a match for Godzilla this time around. Not only because he had a weapon, but because the ax was able to absorb Godzilla's radioactive breath. After avoiding Godzilla's nuclear beam, Kong grabbed said ax, jumped off a skyscraper, and smashed the special weapon into Godzilla's face. As Dr. Nathan Lind said: "I guess round two goes to Kong." Yeah, guess so.
A nuclear ax to the face would kill most anything, but the King of the Monsters is not most anything, so it just ticked him off. First, Godzilla slammed Kong into a skyscraper, knocking his shoulder out of place. Next, Godzilla got feral, hunkering down on all fours and crawling like a crocodile after Kong. Godzilla pounced onto Kong, slashing him with his claws and leaving his chest a bloody mess. With Kong bleeding on the ground, Godzilla stomped on his floored foe, pressing his foot into Kong's broken shoulder. His victory secured, Godzilla decided not to kill Kong and instead walked away, leaving him to die.
2024: Godzilla and Kong team up to take down Mechagodzilla
Kong defeated, Godzilla went back to his mission of destroying the Apex Cybernetics secret superweapon. We found out earlier what this weapon was: Mechagodzilla. For the first time in the MonsterVerse, Godzilla and Mechagodzilla faced off, and it didn't go well for Godzilla. Due to being exhausted from his fight with Kong (again, he took an ax to the face), and the fact Mechagodzilla was designed specifically to fight Godzilla, the big guy was getting his tail handed to him. Thankfully, Kong was revived by an electric jolt to his heart and teamed up with Godzilla to take on Mechagodzilla, the real threat.
Godzilla shot his radioactive beam into Kong's ax, giving it enough juice for Kong to chop Godzilla's cyborg clone into chunks. The two alpha Titans now had a choice: friend or foe? In the end, they went for the third option of an uneasy alliance. Kong dropped his ax, signaling he was no threat and acknowledging Godzilla as King, though still refusing to bend the knee. Seemingly satisfied, Godzilla turned his back on Kong and returned to the sea, resting in the ocean until he was needed again.
2027: Discovering Kong's tribe and the hidden Iwi
Following their battle and temporary partnership, Godzilla and Kong established a tenuous peace, with the giant ape running the show down in the Hollow Earth and Godzilla taking dominion of the surface via his perpetual nomadic lifestyle. He keeps other Titans in line at the start of "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire," ensuring the balance of life. Meanwhile, a Hollow Earth Monarch research base picks up a strange signal.
Kong eventually discovers that the source of the signal is a hidden bastion where members of his species have been living since ancient times alongside a surviving Iwi tribe. Things take a dark turn, however, when Kong encounters the Skar King, who's been waiting a very long time to exact his revenge on the surface and on Godzilla. Skar King now rules Kong's people with an iron fist, with none daring to oppose him.
With the help of some human allies, Kong manages to get away in the hopes of summoning Godzilla to fight by his side against the brutal Skar King. Meanwhile, Iwi youngster Jia fulfills an ancient prophecy and reawakens Mothra, who was thought dead after the events of "Godzilla: King of the Monsters."
2027: Kong and Godzilla defeat Skar King
Kong and Godzilla come face to face in Cairo, but the ancient lizard still doesn't trust Kong, especially as the Skar King's return brings back memories of their ancient war. The two engage in a tense rematch before they're stopped by Mothra, who convinces Godzilla to join forces with his rival. Skar King manages to escape from the Hollow Earth and emerges on the surface near Rio de Janeiro, leading to an action-packed showdown at the end of "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire."
Kong, Godzilla, and Mothra face off against the Skar King and Shimo, the ice lizard who's still his captive servant after so many years. Thanks to a little help from a young ape named Suko, the villain is defeated once and for all, and Godzilla undoes the damage caused by Shimo's ice powers. Another threat to the Earth vanquished, Godzilla returns to his normal nomadic life while Kong takes up the task of leading his people in the post-Skar King age.