All hail the king! First Godzilla sequel photos debut

Warner Bros. Pictures has released the first official photos from the upcoming Godzilla: King of the Monsters! Check them out in the gallery below (via EW).

“The world is reacting to Godzilla in the same way we would react to any other terrifying incident, in that we are overreacting,” director Michael Dougherty tells the outlet about the film. “There’s paranoia and endless speculation about whether he is the only one out there or whether we’re threatened by others like his kind.”

Directed by Dougherty (Trick ‘r Treat, Krampus), the Godzilla sequel stars Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air, The Conjuring films), and Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai) and Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine), both reprising their Godzilla roles, plus Kyle Chandler (The Wolf of Wall Street, Manchester by the Sea), Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things) in her feature film debut, Bradley Whitford (Get Out), Thomas Middleditch (Silicon Valley), Charles Dance (Game of Thrones), O’Shea Jackson Jr. (Straight Outta Compton), Aisha Hinds (Star Trek Into Darkness), and Zhang Ziyi (Memoirs of a Geisha, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon).

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The new story follows the heroic efforts of the crypto-zoological agency Monarch as its members face off against a battery of god-sized monsters, including the mighty Godzilla, who collides with Mothra, Rodan, and his ultimate nemesis, the three-headed King Ghidorah. When these ancient super-species—thought to be mere myths—rise again, they all vie for supremacy, leaving humanity’s very existence hanging in the balance.

Dougherty directs from a script he wrote with Zach Shields. The film is being produced by Mary Parent, Alex Garcia, Brian Rogers and Thomas Tull, with Barry H. Waldman, Zach Shields, Yoshimitsu Banno and Kenji Okuhira serving as executive producers and Alexandra Mendes co-producing for Legendary.

A presentation of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures, the sequel is set to arrive in theaters on May 31, 2019, and will be distributed in 3D and 2D and in select IMAX theaters by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, except in Japan, where it will be distributed by Toho Co., Ltd.