Kong's other movies, Kong did not die at the end of that movie, in fact, he never even left Skull Island until the sequel set in the modern era, 2021's Godzilla vs. Kong.
The MonsterVerse is a shared fictional universe with characters created by Toho Co., Ltd. which includes Godzilla. Warner Bros., which acquired King Kong via Time Warner (which acquired him through RKO), worked with Legendary to create the MonsterVerse to unite classic and new kaiju into a shared, American-produced story. As alpha titans in the MonsterVerse, Godzilla and King Kong are ostensibly the main characters of the franchise, and the Skull Island series further accentuates that point, bringing another group of unlucky explorers to Kong’s shores. Skull Island is the first animated production and first TV series in the MonsterVerse, so expectations are high for the new show.
Skull Island Latest News
The latest news to come out for the Skull Island anime is a new trailer showing Kong battling Skull Island monsters. This longer trailer, gives a much deeper look into the characters, monsters, and story in the new anime series than its previously released teaser. Many of the monsters from Kong: Skull Island have returned including the giant squid, prehistoric-looking Terror Bird, and of course, the Skullcrawlers. There are plenty of new creatures to fill out the rest of the island too.
From the looks of the trailer, the monsters on the island are not the only antagonists the three main characters have to contend with, as other explorers with guns seem to have nefarious plans for the island's creatures and Kong himself. Charlie, Annie, and Mike are the young trio trapped on the island and work to escape while protecting some of its creatures, not all of whom are monstrous.
Skull Island Release Date
The Skull Island anime is set to premiere on Thursday, June 22, 2023, on Netflix. According to a tweet from showrunner Brian Duffield, there will be 8 episodes in the series.
Skull Island Cast
The voice cast of Skull Island includes some talented actors all proven in either live-action or voice-acting roles. The main character Charlie is voiced by Nicolas Cantu. Cantu has done plenty of acting and voice work in the past including playing Elton Ortiz in The Walking Dead: The World Beyond and voicing Gumball Watterson in The Amazing World of Gumball. Charlie’s friend Mike is voiced by Darren Barnet who plays Paxton Hall-Yoshida on Never Have I Ever and appears in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as Wilfred "Freddy" Malick.
Rounding out the main trio in the Skull Island anime is Annie, voiced by Mae Whitman. Whitman’s credits include Scott Pilgrim vs. The World as Roxy Richter, Parenthood as Amber Holt, and Good Girls as Annie Marks. Betty Gilpin is set to voice Irene. Gilpin is best known for her roles in GLOW as Debbie Eagan and The Hunt as Crystal Creasey. Finally, Benjamin Bratt voices Cap. Bratt appears in Miss Congeniality as Eric Matthews, in Traffic as Juan Obregón, and he voices Ernesto de la Cruz in Coco.
Skull Island Story Details
The Skull Island anime takes place in the 1990s. That sets the series after Kong: Skull Island when James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston), Preston Packard (Samuel L. Jackson), and Mason Weaver (Brie Larson) arrived to see Kong for the first time and before Kong was captured by Monarch and placed in captivity as shown in Godzilla vs. Kong. The Skull Island series follows various groups of explorers who find themselves trapped on the titular island. Charlie leads Mike on an adventure to explore the mysterious locale but when their ship inevitably sinks, they, along with the rest of the crew, are stranded on the wild and dangerous island.
Annie, who arrived at the island before her friends, is lost after her exploratory crew is separated. It’s her disappearance that triggers Charlie and Mike to go after her in the first place. The early episodes of Skull Island will certainly focus on the boys' search. Annie manages to keep herself alive alone on the island and even befriends one of Skull Island’s monsters. At the same time, more explorers arrive on the island, including Charlie’s father. It’s a fight to stay alive and stop the sinister elements from disrupting Kong’s ecosystem.
Skull Island Trailer
The first trailer for the Skull Island anime came on May 23, 2022, and is a teaser that the full trailer later expanded on. In the Skull Island teaser, Annie and a large crew of explorers are dropped off and as they wave goodbye to their helicopter, a kaiju-sized octopus erupts from the sea and drags it down into the depths. The stage is set for Annie to be trapped on Skull Island and forced to survive on her own. Later, Mike and Charlie wash up on the shore and encounter a slew of dangerous creatures as well as some gun-wielding humans.
With a TV-14 rating, there looks to be a not-insignificant amount of animated violence and death, appropriate for a setting called “Skull Island”. Annie reappears later in the trailer, and it doesn't seem like the trio will be separated for long. It also appears that Annie has picked up some survival skills along the way and will be the one to protect the boys on the island, despite them coming to save her. The end of the Skull Island anime trailer also has the requisite shot of King Kong roaring, making it clear that while the story will be about the humans on the island, it’s still Kong’s show.
How Will Skull Island Fit Into The MonsterVerse?
According to another tweet from Duffield, Skull Island takes place in the 1990s, meaning no characters will overlap from either Kong: Skull Island or any of the movies that came after. There is a gap in the MonsterVerse story that Skull Island could fill: it is never explained how Kong went from being free on Skull Island to living in a Monarch-enclosed terrarium. Beyond that, however, there are a few other questions left unanswered in the MonsterVerse, so the Skull Island anime has plenty of space to simply explore the island and dig deeper into Kong as a character.
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