Two legendary beasts are about to fight for the title of King of Monsters once more. King Kong and Godzilla are set to appear in an untitled mega monster showdown over at Warner Bros. According to a new report, Kong: Skull Island will now be moving from Universal Pictures over to WB, so that the production house can have a shared monster universe under one nice studio.

With Legendary already owning the rights to Godzilla, the move makes plenty of sense, but it doesn’t make it any less surprising since Universal is losing yet another major property so that their competition can create a shared universe. More on the story below.

According to Deadline, this is all happening very quickly with the moves going as far as Japan where Godzilla rights holder Toho is based.

When WB and Legendary’s deal expired last year, the latter signed a deal with Universal Pictures. Kong: Skull Island was to be one of their major blockbusters of 2016. As aforementioned, the “move is being done because it is just easier to have all the pieces under one roof.” Marvel Studios made a similar move when they obtained the rights to The Hulk so that they could have him as part of their shared universe.

The site establishes Kong: Skull Island as a prequel to King Kong, so how exactly the giant ape will be resurrected to fight the towering reptile in the untitled King Kong vs. Godzilla film remains to be seen. And that’s another thing, the size of these two monsters are very disproportionate. For one thing, we know that King Kong can climb buildings but Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla towers over buildings, so the battle itself is a bit lopsided in favor of Godzilla. I’m sure whomever writes it will figure out the huge size difference between the two iconic monsters.

As far as Godzilla 2 is concerned, we know that Edwards will return to direct after he finished his directing Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Max Borenstein will also return to write the script for the sequel, which is said to include other Toho properties like Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah.

Kong: Skull Island stars Brie Larson, Tom Hiddleston, Corey Hawkins, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Wilkinson, John C. Reilly, and Jason Mitchell. It’s directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts who uses a script penned by John Gatins and Borenstein. The site adds that casting is still unfinished, but Legendary is eyeing a start date later this year or early next year.

It should be interesting to see how far Legendary can go with this shared universe. For one thing, Guillermo del Toro has expressed an interest in having Godzilla in Pacific Rim 3 – remember Legendary also produced Pacific Rim. If that happens, there are no words to express how excited fans would be to see a mecha showdown with Godzilla.

[Source: Deadline]