Recapping the epic MonsterVerse saga so far ahead of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

Expect a monster mash of gargantuan proportions in the upcoming Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. It's the latest installment in the MonsterVerse franchise, which has already pitted the iconic monsters Godzilla and King Kong against one another.

Need to brush up on the MonsterVerse saga so far? We're here to help. Scroll down to discover everything you need to know. 

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Godzilla (2014)

• In 1954 in the Pacific Atoll, the American military attempts to kill a mysterious creature with a scheduled nuclear attack
• In the present day, US Navy officer Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is determined to discover what happened to his mother when she died during a sudden collapse of a Japanese nuclear power plant
• The contaminated site of the former reactor is now revealed to house a creature known as a "MUTO" (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism)
• Ford is informed by scientist Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) that the creature the Army attempted to kill back in the 1950s is known as Godzilla ('giant lizard')
• Nuclear tests in the 1950s were attempts to kill Godzilla; when this did not work, Project Monarch was established to study Godzilla and similar monsters secretly.
• It's established that the MUTO inadvertently caused the death of Ford's mother and now appears to be trying to communicate with Godzilla
• The first MUTO, a male, is later joined by a female
• The Army approves a plan to try and lure the creatures out to sea where they will be destroyed with a nuclear warhead
• Ultimately, the two MUTOs converge with Godzilla for a fight to the death in San Francisco where Godzilla emerges as the victor
• With the jubilant crowds watching, Godzilla once again leaves for the ocean

Kong Skull Island (2017)

• In 1944, two World War II fighter pilots, American pilot Hank Marlow and Japanese pilot Gunpei Ikari, parachute onto an island in the South Pacific after a dogfight
• They engage in close combat until the fight is interrupted by a giant ape
• Years later in 1973, Bill Randa (John Goodman), head of the U.S. government organization Monarch, plans a search for primeval creatures on the recently discovered Skull Island
• Also along for the ride: U.S. Army unit commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Preston Packard (Samuel L. Jackson), tracker and former British Special Air Service Captain James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston), and anti-war photographer Mason Weaver (Brie Larson)
• Upon arriving at Skull Island the group is attacked by a giant primate, subsequently revealed as King Kong
• The older Hank Marlow (John C Reilly) offers the group shelter and reveals he has been living on the island for the past 29 years
• Marlow informs the unit that Kong protects the island from predators, including a race of subterranean reptilian creatures named 'Skullcrawlers'
• With the help of Conrad and Weaver, Kong is able to defeat a giant skullcrawler and the survivors finally leave the island
• In a post-credits scene, Conrad and Weaver are informed that Kong belongs to a collective of god-like monsters, which includes Godzilla, Mothra, Rhodan and King Ghidorah

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)

• Back in the present day, Godzilla, Kong and their rivals have been dubbed the 'Titans'
• Five years after the existence of the Titans was revealed to the world, Dr. Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga), a paleobiologist working for the Titan-studying organization Monarch, and her daughter Madison (Millie Bobby Brown) witness the birth of a larva called Mothra
• Emma calms Mothra using the "Orca," a device emitting frequencies to attract or alter Titan behavior.
• A group of eco-terrorists, led by former British Army Colonel Alan Jonah (Charles Dance), attacks the base and abducts Emma and Madison
• A new Titan dubbed 'Monster Zero' is revealed to be the terrifying King Ghidorah, a three-headed beast that is seeking to terraform the Earth
• Ghidorah awakens other Titans and subjugates them to its command; this includes the volcano-dwelling airborne fire demon known as Rodan
• The peaceful Mothra goes to communicate with the dormant Godzilla who is recuperating after a recent battle with Ghidorah in a subterranean layer near the centre of the Earth
• Dr. Serizawa sacrifices himself by manually detonating a nuclear warhead to speed up Godzilla's healing process, reviving Godzilla and increasing his power
• In a drastic final battle, Mothra defeats Rodan but is injured in the process while Godzilla upgrades his atomic breath and is able to vaporize Ghidorah 
• Rodan and the other Titans converge on Godzilla and bow to him as their new alpha
• During the end credits, news clippings and Monarch public files show that the Titans are now healing the planet, a suspected second Mothra egg has been discovered, and some Titans are converging on Skull Island

Godzilla vs Kong (2021)

• Five years after King Ghidorah's defeat, King Kong is revealed to be under observation on Skull Island
• Kong is visited by the deaf Jia (Kaylee Hottle), the last member of the indigenous Skull Island Iwi tribe and the young adopted daughter of Kong expert Ilene Andrews
• Monarch scientist Lind (Alexander Skarsgard) has been trying to find the entrance to the Hollow Earth, the Titans' homeworld
• Godzilla later attacks the Apex cybernetics facility and later assaults a US Navy transport carrying a sedated Kong
• In a fierce battle, Godzilla defeats Kong and then retreats while the humans are compelled to airlift the great ape to the entrance to the Hollow Earth
• A small team led by Lind enters a portal into Apex's secret facility beneath Hong Kong, which is revealed to house a test of Mechagodzilla
• Mechagodzilla is telepathically controlled by Ren Serizawa, the son of the late Ishirō Serizawa, via neural networks from the severed head of Ghidorah
• Apex CEO Walter Simmons is attempting to harness the Hollow Earth's energy to overcome Mechagodzilla's power supply limitations
• Inside the Hollow Earth, Kong and the human team find an ecosystem similar to Skull Island
• In Kong's ancestral throne room, they find the remains of an ancient war with Godzilla's kind and a glowing axe made from another of Godzilla's dorsal plates
• With Mechagodzilla activated by King Ghidorah's consciousness, Godzilla and King Kong ultimately team up to defeat it
• Titans Godzilla and Kong, now reluctant allies, go their separate ways while Monarch establishes an observation post in the Hollow Earth, where Kong now rules

Up to speed? Then don't miss the latest chapter in this epic monster mash. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is released on March 29th.