SDCC 2017

Universal has a weird way of letting you use their characters without a major deal.

For instance, when Hotel Transylvania was made (you know, that comedy animation by Sony Pictures?), Universal let them use their monsters on really weird stipulations such as Frankenstein not being able to have his metal screws on his neck, Frankenstein's Bride not being able to have the lightning bolt streak in her hair, and Dracula not being able to have the classic Dracula haircut. There were more, but that gives you the basic idea.

Not naming the character "KING Kong" might be another weird rule put on by Universal. Only time will tell, however.

Hmm, thanks NateZilla. It sounds like Universal can be almost as anal/protective about things as Toho themselves (almost)!

I guess it will be very interesting to see if Kong is ever upgraded to "King Kong" at any point later on or not.

Legendary has used the name "King Kong" in marketing for the film, just not to a great extent. Obviously the film is just called Kong: Skull Island and the character is just referred to as "Kong" in dialogue, but he is rarely if ever called "King Kong" by characters in any of the American films. The Japanese version of the film is titled "King Kong: Giant God of Skull Island" and all of the Japanese marketing elects to call him by his full name of "King Kong".

Some of the American marketing for the MonsterVerse still calls him "King Kong" though. Legendary's press releases for the Skull Island: The Birth of Kong comic refer to it as "the story of King Kong," and one of the tracks on the film's soundtrack is called "King Kong." The FunKo Pop! vinyl figure of Kong from the film is also called "King Kong" (it has a "tm" symbol next to it also, which is odd because I am unsure who, if anyone, actually owns the trademark to Kong's name). Not to mention, the film and marketing also tend to frequently refer to Kong as a "king."

There may very well be some weird thing with Universal that prevents Legendary and WB from using "King Kong" prominently in the titles or marketing from the film, but it's also possible Legendary is just trying to set their Kong films apart from previous ones by avoiding using "King Kong" in the titles. Skull Island is meant to be the story of "how Kong became King," so it's possible he hadn't yet earned the full title of "King Kong."

Warner Bros. just finished their panel at SDCC. Apart from a clip of G'14 during a montage of WB's "best blockbusters", the MonsterVerse was not mentioned.

What we got as far as Godzilla/Monsterverse stuff is about what I expected. I'm still disappointed that we got no PR2 trailer. I know the director says it's not ready, but they should have had the forethought to be ready. A Comic-Con reveal gets your movie's name in the head of a lot of people and the teaser we did get was weak.

King of the Monsters - thanks for the extra info! I am very curious to see if they'll ever call him "King Kong" in the movies, maybe once he grows some more and is a match for Godzilla? Or if it just a weird legal thing, I suppose we'll all just have to wait and see.

And I agree, it seems kind of lame there's pretty much nothing about the MonsterVerse at the con, or even much for the upcoming Pacific Rim sequel. It comes out in barely half a year, this would have been the perfect time to debut a (real) trailer or some footage. And Pacific Rim is on even shakier ground than the MonsterVerse, they could have really used the boost. Too bad.

^There was the Skull Island walkthrough. The MonsterVerse did make a prominent appearance, it was simply for a movie that's been released and not an announcement at a panel.

I think that the reason why toho is very picky about what other people do with godzilla is because of 1998

^Mostly that. Past dealings with distributors probably factor in to it as well.

Well whatever is shown at comic-con I hope it creates great forums such as these. Maybe a teaser trailer or poster. Maybe a monster design. Or roars from the monsters. And hopefully another Monarch timeline event. I never went to a comic-con before so I'm not ever sure of what to expect.