Kong: Skull Island - Legendary Pictures' upcoming reimagining of the King King mythos - become all the more intriguing a project recently, with the news that the film has moved from Universal Pictures to Warner Bros., to clear the way for a future King Kong/Godzilla crossover. Production on Skull Island will be underway soon - with Jordan Vogt-Roberts (The Kings of Summer) calling the shots - so it won't be much longer until the film's cast is officially finalized.
Loki himself, Tom Hiddleston is playing Skull Island's male lead: an adventurer who ends up coming face to face with The Eighth Wonder of the World. Brie Larson (Trainwreck) is onboard as the female lead, while other reported cast members include John C. Reilly (Guardians of the Galaxy), and Nick Fury himself, Samuel L. Jackson, as well as the Straight Outta Compton costars Jason Mitchell and Corey Hawkins. Today, we can add a couple more people of interest to this project's acting lineup.
The Wrap is reporting that John Goodman has joined the Kong: Skull Island cast; he will play Randa, the government official in charge of the mission to explore Skull Island. Meanwhile, Variety is reporting that Thomas Mann - who is breakout star of this past summer's acclaimed indie dramedy release Me and Earl and the Dying Girl - will play another member of said Skull Island expedition. Both Mann and Mitchell made our 10 Rising Stars of Summer 2015 countdown - and with good reason, as their casting in Skull Island further illustrates.
Here is the official longline that Legendary previously released for Skull Island:
[KONG: SKULL ISLAND] will fully immerse audiences in the mysterious and dangerous home of the king of the apes as a team of explorers ventures deep inside the treacherous, primordial island. Legendary’s story honors the foundations of existing King Kong lore, but places it in an entirely new, distinct timeline.
The "new, distinct" timeline referenced in Legendary's longline has been a point of interest, where it concerns Skull Island. J.K. Simmons, back when he was still attached to costar in the film, said that the movie takes place during the 1970s. The Skull Island screenplay has gone through a couple of rewrites at this point, with Derek Connolly (Jurassic World) having recently put together a polished script draft, after previous versions were penned by Max Borenstein (Godzilla), John Gatins (Flight), and Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler). As such, it's plausible some key details have changed since Simmons was involved.
Nonetheless, based on the most recent reports on the matter, Skull Island should still take place in the second half of the 20th Century (rather than in the Depression era, a la King Kong (1933) and Peter Jackson's 2005 Kong remake), in order to better tie in with certain elements of the 2014 Godzilla movie reboot. And on that note...
NEXT: Godzilla & Skull Island Connection Explained
Kong: Skull Island opens in U.S. theaters on March 10th, 2017, followed by Godzilla 2 on June 8th, 2018. The King Kong/Godzilla movie doesn’t have a release date yet.