open/close all folders
Skull Island
Gunpei Ikari
Portrayed By: Miyavi
Appeared In: Kong: Skull Island
A World War II Japanese pilot who got stranded on Skull Island with Lieutenant Hank Marlow.
- Actor Allusion: Miyavi was cast as the Big Bad (who was also an Imperial Japanese military member during World War II) of the 2014 film Unbroken.
- Due to the Dead: Aside from getting a weapon tombstone within the Iwi's village, Marlow kneels and places a hand on Gunpei's grave, explaining his history with the man to Conrad and Marlow as well as their vow that they would never leave each-other behind, before he takes Gunpei's shin-guntō so that he can fulfil that vow spiritually when he escapes the island.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Upon crashing on Skull Island, Marlow and Gunpei's first reaction upon seeing each is to fight to the death. But after their encounter with Kong, the two set aside their differences to survive on Skull Island together, with Gunpei teaching Marlow some Japanese and how to fight with a sword. Before Marlow departs the village, he pays a tearful tribute to his deceased friend.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: Inverted and then Played Straight. In the distant prologue, he (wielding a katana), and Marlow are both trying to kill each-other, and Marlow in fact fires at Gunpei first, but Gunpei is decidedly the more vicious of the two by the slasher smile that he wears when trying to run Marlow through. Offscreen, they became Fire-Forged Friends and befriended the Iwi over their years marooned on the island, and Marlow wields Gunpei's katana as a way to keep the latter with him.
- Katanas Are Just Better: He wields a katana that was more than effective at slicing up monsters without rusting, breaking, or losing its edge without proper care for 28 years, seemingly doing more damage to a Skullcrawler than bullets.
- Killed Offscreen: He was killed by Skullcrawlers at some point during the 28-year time skip.
- Weapon Tombstone: His shin-guntō sword serves as a grave marker until Marlow reclaims it as a memento of their friendship.
The Iwi
Appeared In: Kong: Skull Island | Skull Island: The Birth of Kong | Kingdom Kong | Skull Island
The human natives of Skull Island. They worship Kong as a guardian god and fear the Skullcralwers. They took in Marlow and Gunpei and later provided shelter to half of the Monarch expedition.
- Adaptational Heroism: Unlike the hostile natives in previous Kong movies, who ranged from being violently xenophobic to savage brutes, the Iwi are civilised and friendly to visitors once they realise they aren't a threat.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In most King Kong films, the natives of Skull Island are equal parts revering and terrified of Kong to the point they make sacrifices to hopefully sate him. Here the Iwi and Kong are outwardly friendly to each other, the former seeing the big ape as a benevolent guardian deity and the latter actively protecting the natives from dangerous predators.
- Action Survivor: While not shown in the film, it can be assumed they are this since they live on the island.
- The Monarch Files on the Leafwing say they hunt Leafwings and ground up the wings to use as a drug. Considering how dangerous they are this makes the Iwi badass for actively hunting them.
- Admiring the Abomination: The Skull Island Iwi revere Kong while the Hollow Earth Iwa worshipped Mothra as a deity, and after the original was killed by Godzilla they continued to worship her egg and unborn offspring.
- Body Paint: They paint their bodies with distinct hieroglyphic patterns. Most of the Iwi use yellow paint, but in Kong: Skull Island, the elders in their village are distinguished by instead using blue paint.
- Bus Crash: In Godzilla vs. Kong, and more explicitly in its novelization, it's stated that all of them except Jia have been wiped out as far as Monarch can tell due to the Perpetual Storm surrounding Skull Island closing in over the island. Kingdom Kong elaborates on this, revealing that the storm collapsed after getting exposed to a remnant of the storms King Ghidorah created, and that said storm also drew Camazotz out of Hollow Earth, with his rampage speeding up the demise of Skull Island. However, Kingdom Kong and the Kong: Skull Island Cinematic Adventure sourcebook both contradict the movie and novelization accounts, claiming that most of the Iwi were evacuated and resettled by Monarch instead of perishing.
- Carved Mark: Although their body paint makes it hard to see at a distance, many of the Iwi also have numerous tribal symbols and hieroglyphs carved into their very skin.
- Color-Coded Castes: The younger tribe members who hunt and gather food have yellow tribal body paint while the elders have blue.
- Conflict Killer: Implied in the sourcebook for the tabletop game Kong: Skull Island Cinematic Adventure: the Iwi have to survive together in a Death World where humans are quite low on the food chain, and the sourcebook states that they were never witnessed having any violent altercations with each-other.
- The Dreaded: They dread the Skullcrawlers (known to them as Halakrah, though they scarely speak that name) and they regard Godzilla's species as a malevolent Draconic Abomination.
- Expy: The Iwi in the Hollow Earth civilization take after the Houtua, in their Telepathy and worshipping Mothra.
- Future Primitive: In the novelization, it's stated explicitly that they were the last survivors of the ancient Hollow Earth civilization which existed more than ten-thousand years ago. But after arriving on Skull Island they regressed to a largely tribal scavenging lifestyle. Retconned in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire when it's revealed the Hollow Earth civilization Iwi still strive.
- He Who Must Not Be Named: Their name for the Skullcrawlers.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: They managed to get the drop on the expedition team by having a few members in mud or clay stand among the ruins like statues.
- Honor Before Reason: In the Godzilla vs. Kong novelization, it's indicated they could've survived had they listened to Monarch's pleas to relocate as the Perpetual Storm swallowed up their homes, but they refused to move from their village until it was buried by a mudslide and all but a handful were dead.
- Lost Tribe: To be expected since their home was thought to be a myth until it was found.
- Malevolent Masked Men: In Skull Island (2023), the Iwi we see are all wearing red-and-yellow full-face masks and hoods over their heads, which creates a bad In-Universe first impression of them whenever Charlie encounters them: first when an Iwi herds Charlie into the Hawk's clutches to be taken to Kong's home, then when several Iwi catch Charlie in a snare and intend to see him punished for offending and endangering Kong.
- Perpetual Frowner: The natives of Skull Island are constantly stone-faced in Kong: Skull Island, and Marlow half-jokingly quips that they "never smile". Seemingly subverted, as Jia and especially Ato smile aplenty in the Iwi's subsequent appearances.
- Retcon: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire reveals the Iwi on Skull Island are a branch of another tribe that resides in Hollow Earth.
- Spikes of Doom: They built walls of spikes around their village to keep out Skullcrawlers. Fresh blood can be seen on most of the walls.
- The Stoic: When their decades-long guest Marlow departs to fight his way back to the outside world, and he solemnly says farewell, the Iwi don't say or facially emote anything, but they're gathered to see him off, and their elders bow their heads to Marlow in goodbye.
- Suddenly Speaking: The Iwi almost never speak when they're onscreen, being The Voiceless in Kong: Skull Island, although Marlow indicates that they do speak offscreen. In later appearances...
- Aaron Brooks' expedition in Skull Island: The Birth of Kong are surprised to encounter an Iwi boy named Ato who speaks English, having learned it from the previous visitors to Skull Island.
- In Skull Island (2023), the Iwi who herds Charlie towards the Hawk is dead silent throughout the task. Later, when an angry group of Iwi string Charlie up, Charlie is stunned to hear an Iwi woman speaking for the first time, in English, as she tells him he'll suffer for his transgressions against Kong.
- The Voiceless: Marlow points out they rarely speak. Given where they live, this is probably to avoid unwanted attention from the island's super predators. The Godzilla vs. Kong novelization indicates it's probably also because Kong literally can't form human words and communicates with the Iwi via sign language instead.
- Wallpaper Camouflage: A variation. As shown in their introductory scene, the Iwi use yellow and brown body paint to camouflage themselves seamlessly against the similarly-colored and hieroglyph-decorated ruins that lie on the outskirts of their village.
Ato
"Greetings, searchers. You have come at last."
Appeared In: Skull Island: The Birth of Kong
The leader of the Iwi during Aaron's 1995 expedition to Skull Island. He takes them in after Kong saves them from their violent run-in with Death Jackals.
- Accidental Pervert: When Riccio suggests the team get body painted for the Iwi rituals, Ato enthusiastically agrees and tells the rest of Aaron's team to take their clothes off. They are not amused. Justified in a rare realistic example, the Iwi are an isolated tribe.
- Harmful to Minors: Since he was born and grew up on Skull Island, this is a given. He's no stranger to the mutilated remains of Skull Island's predators that his people's savior Kong slays. The same probably can't be said for him witnessing people murdering other people when Riccio murders two of his compatriots, including shooting Evelyn Matemavi in front of them and a screaming Aaron cradling her corpse. At the graphic novel's climax, Ato witnesses the Mother Longlegs swarming into his village and slaughtering his people in incredibly gruesome ways.
- Killed Offscreen: Since Jia is the Sole Survivor of her people by the time of Godzilla vs. Kong, it can be assumed that this fate befell him.
- Pistol-Whipping: In issue 4, when Riccio says the wall protecting the Iwi village must come down, Ato pleads against it and gets pistol-whipped across the face by Riccio.
- The Voiceless: Subverted. His father learned English from Marlow, who in turn taught Ato English.
- Young and in Charge: He's like eight-years-old, at max.
Jia
Portrayed By: Kaylee Hottle
Appeared In: Kingdom Kong | Kong & Me | Godzilla vs. Kong | Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
A young Iwi girl who forms a close bond with Kong, communicating with him via sign language.
- Awesome Anachronistic Apparel: Jia wears modern clothes in combination with her Iwi maiden shawl and a necklace of Leafwing fangs.
- Badass and Child Duo: Kong has taken her in under his personal guard since the rest of her tribe apparently perished amid Skull Island's destruction. Jia is a young girl who trusts and believes in Kong unconditionally, and accompanies him wherever he goes throughout the film, and she's able to secretly and mutually communicate with him via sign language. A well-meaning Nathan thinks Jia can manipulate Kong to Team Kong's agenda once the extent of her bond with the primate is revealed.
- Brainy Brunette: Like the majority of the Iwi, she has dark hair, and what she lacks in a scholary intellect, she makes up for with a tentative awareness and understanding of Kong's feelings and mental state which the rest of Team Kong lacks.
- Brutal Honesty: She's described in the novelization as being "blunt and literal" when she says something.
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character: She fills the same role among the core three members of Team Kong in her debut movie as Madison filled among the core three members of the Russell family in hers. Madison and Jia are both children in a three-person family unit (surrogate at most for Jia instead of her literal family as with Madison), primarily living with a mother figure at the start. Both have a profound connection to a benevolent Alpha Titan (Mothra and then Godzilla for Madison, Kong for Jia), and both end up being pawns of their debuts' main human antagonists via their mother figures respectively. They've both lost loved ones as collateral of a Titan incident before their first movie's start, but whereas Madison only lost her brother and became estranged from her father, Jia lost her entire family and her home due to Camazotz' actions. Madison is the daughter of elite Monarch scientists and has inherited some of their scientific acumen; whereas Jia is of a tribal background among the Iwi but was taken in by a Monarch scientist, and she's primarily spiritual. Madison has travelled the world, whereas the world outside of Skull Island is still very new to Jia, as shown by her thoughts in the Godzilla vs. Kong novelization. Madison spends most of Godzilla: King of the Monsters separated from one or both of her family unit's parent figures, whereas Jia spends most of Godzilla vs. Kong in near-consistent close contact with hers.
- Disability Superpower: Being deaf gives her an enhanced sense of touch, being able to feel the vibrations of Godzilla's roar through a ship bulkhead before the ship's hi-tech instruments detect him, and later feeling Kong's weakening heartbeat through the earth when he lies dying after Godzilla has defeated him.
- Dislikes the New Guy: She's at first wary of Nathan and judges him to be a coward, but she warms up to him over the course of the story. And he still has no idea what the sign Dr. Andrews told him means "brave" really means.
- Forever War: Discussed by her in the novelization. She sees the blood feud between Kong's kind and Godzilla as this.
- Freudian Slip: Inverted in the novelization, where she seemingly almost tells Dr. Andrews during a What the Hell, Hero? that the latter isn't her mother but stops herself.
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Has a doll of Kong that she made by hand and takes with her everywhere, even to the Hollow Earth.
- Happily Adopted: Ilene loves Jia as her own daughter, and respects her status as the last living member of the Skull Island Iwi tribe. She even gave Jia her blessing to remain with the Iwi tribe of Hollow Earth, but Jia reaffirmed that Ilene is her home.
- Harmful to Minors: Since she was born and grew up on Skull Island, this is a given. She watched the now-desperate man-eating predators and the natural disasters caused by the Perpetual Storm closing in claim all of her loved ones sans Kong, she and her surrogate mother both almost drown together in the Tasman Sea during Godzilla and Kong's first fight, she has a couple life-threatening close calls with Warbats and Hellhawks where they slaughter the adults around her (graphically in the case of the Hellhawks), and she has an aerial view of Godzilla beating her beloved Kong to near-death before she personally confirms from ground zero of the aftermath that Kong is dying.
- Held Gaze: Kong and Jia have a tendency to personally lock eyes with each-other when Kong leans down to look at her. The novelization notes that this is Kong's way of telling her that he, as gigantic as he is, can see her and is glad of her presence.
- Hero of Another Story: Or at least protagonist. While she is a prominent supporting character in Godzilla vs. Kong, the children's book Kong & Me is from her perspective, showing them exploring Skull Island with Kong looking out for her.
- Hiding Behind the Language Barrier: Uses this to call Lind a coward directly to his face.
- Kid with the Leash: Discussed after it's revealed that Kong understands sign language and listens to her. Ilene immediately shoots that idea down, but eventually Jia does end up giving Kong nudges in the right direction.
- Last of Her Kind: It's mentioned that the Iwi tribe has been wiped out prior the events of Godzilla vs. Kong, leaving Jia as the last member of her tribe. Kingdom Kong and the sourcebook for Kong: Skull Island Cinematic Adventure appear to directly contradict this, stating that Jia's kin were evacuated when Skull Island was doomed.
- Like a Daughter to Me: Dr. Andrews is her guardian after the rest of the Iwi were apparently wiped out, and it's implied (particularly in the novelization) that she views Jia as a daughter.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In the novelization; when the bio-dome, and with it the last piece of Skull Island's ecosystem, is destroyed, Jia cries for the very first time since Andrews met her, and afterwards she rejects Andrews' attempts to comfort her for a few days. She's also tearing up when she senses Kong's heartbeat fading, and when urging him after he's revived to be careful when fighting Mechagodzilla.
- Parental Abandonment: Dr. Andrews mentions that both Jia's parents died when the Perpetual Storm overtook Skull Island, leading to Andrews becoming Jia's guardian and Kong in his own way doing likewise.
- Protectorate: The trailers for Godzilla vs. Kong note that both Dr. Ilene Andrews and Kong himself form a protective bond with Jia, to the extent it's emphasized that she's the only human Kong trusts.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Played With. She can mutually communicate with Kong via Iwi sign language, including complex communication such as telling Kong that Godzilla is not the enemy and Mechagodzilla is the real enemy.
- Sympathy for the Devil: The novelization of Godzilla vs. Kong reveals that Iwi culture views Godzilla's species as a malevolent Draconic Abomination. But upon learning that Godzilla is the last known individual of his kind — just like Kong — Jia reacts with sadness.
- What the Hell, Hero?: In the novelization, she chews Dr. Andrews out for repeatedly drugging and chaining up Kong, pointing out that it's only justifying Kong's distrust of Monarch instead of making him think he can open up to Andrews' efforts to communicate, and also for acting like she and Monarch know what's best for the King of Primates better than the King himself does.
Annie
"Are all boys as useless as you?"
Voiced By: Mae Whitman, Charlie Townsend (young)
Appears In: Skull Island
A teenaged feral girl who's been stranded on a similarly monster-populated island near Skull Island for ten years, before mercenaries kidnap her from her home, setting off a chain of events that leaves her stranded on Skull Island itself. She has a close bond with Dog.
- The Beastmaster: She's managed to tame and form a profound bond with a giant, dog-like creature that she named Dog, on account of them banding together in their youths for survival after both were orphaned. However, she makes it clear that she can't outright force Dog to do something if he decides he doesn't want to do it or is too scared, in which case she often has to trick him into it via such methods as feigning urgent distress.
- Black-and-White Insanity: Downplayed Trope, but her limited interaction with other people before the start of the show has led to her not having a firm grasp of their nuances.
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character: A Contrasting Prequel Main Character to Jia from Godzilla vs. Kong. Both are island girls unfamiliar with the modern world who have spent most of their lives so far on an Isle of Giant Horrors, and both of them have a fierce and mutual protective friendship with an intelligent, benevolent monster. But Jia is a pre-teenaged, tribal born native of Skull Island who grew up among the Iwi, bonded with Kong, and understands Kong more intimately than the rest of her debut movie's cast; whereas Annie is a teenaged, lost wild child originally from the civilized world who's been living on another monster island for most of her life, meaning she's just as unfamiliar with Kong as the rest of the castaways (and she in fact antagonizes Kong to violence against her in the season finale), and she's instead bonded intimately with Dog and had no-one else throughout her life on Annie's Island. Jia is almost completely non-combative, only supporting and communicating with Kong rather than getting herself involved in any actual fighting of any kind (which would be impractical for her anyway given her younger age), whereas Annie is a vicious fighter who works in tandem with Dog when he's around, holds her own well without him. Whereas Jia starts and spends the movie under the guardianship of an unrelated woman from the civilized world who took her in after both her parents died, Annie is (unbeknownst to her) pursued by her actual Missing Mom from the civilized world who wants to take her back, which Annie actively resists.
- Family Eye Resemblance: She has the same amber eyes as one of her parents: her mother, Irene.
- Feuding Families: Inverted. Annie's father and Dog's were trying to kill each-other, leading to a Mutual Kill. Amid the fallout, the two opponents' newly-orphaned offspring bonded with each-other and became inseparable.
- Garden Garment: Downplayed Trope. She's a Wild Child who's scavenged clothing mostly consists of garments that were clearly made in the civilized world, except for a semi "mini-cape" she wears around her waist that's made of ferns.
- A Girl and Her X: Though she's quick to point out that he's not a pet, she does have a monster dog; named Dog, as a companion.
- Giver of Lame Names: Dubbed the Island she spent most of her life stranded on, the very original name of "Annie's Island."
- Hypocritical Humour: When Charlie takes a harpoon head from her and throws it to Mike she reprimands him for "stealing", completely ignoring the fact that said harpoon head was from their ship and she had seems to have no problem taking anything else she thinks she needs from people. This is Played for Laughs.
- Innocently Insensitive: Being a wild child with No Social Skills, she's very blunt, and she isn't always considerate about how it affects the people around her, such as dropping the bombshell that Mike's "dying" on Charlie without elaborating, or bluntly commenting in front of Cap that Charlie is likely dead due to Mike leaving him.
- Jungle Princess: Of Annie's Island.
- Literal-Minded: Having been isolated on an Isle of Giant Horrors without any human contact since she was six years old, Annie doesn't understand many euphemisms or metaphors, and what ones she does understand are often warped, like her idea of a "magic trick".Irene: You're a cavegirl!
Annie: [stunned] I have never lived in a cave! - No Social Skills: Having been without human contact for about a decade she never gained any real social skills.
- Time-Shifted Actor: She's mainly voiced by Mae Whitman, but her much younger self in Episode 5 is voiced by Charlie Townsend.
- Tracking Device: Unbeknownst to her, the handcuffs which the mercenaries slapped on her, and which remain stuck on her wrists despite the chain being broken, have a tracker in them which the mercs are using to track her whereabouts across Skull Island and anticipate her movements during a direct confrontation.
- Wild Child: Annie has been shipwrecked on an island close to Skull Island for more than a decade with nobody but Dog for companionship. Thus, at age 16, she has a tendency to act somewhat immature and socially inept.
Island Girl
"My king."
Voiced By: Fryda Wolff
Appears In: Skull Island
A girl of apparently Spanish origins note who lived on Skull Island with her peoplenote . She developed a close friendship with Kong some time before Annie, Irene's group, and the crew of the Once Upon a Maritime arrived on the island.
- Affectionate Gesture to the Nose: She places her palm against Kong's nose with her dying breaths, acknowledging her close Titan friend as her king.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: She dies while Kong's holding her in his hand due to the injuries she gained from the Kraken's attack.
- Say My Name: When things are dire in the fight against the Killer Chameleons:"Kong!"
- Shout-Out: Seeing as how this isn't the first Significant Green-Eyed Redhead to have a close relationship with Kong this could mean that the Island Girl is a reference to Lua.
- Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Has bright green eyes and red hair and is major part of Kong's backstory in Skull Island.
Other Characters
Akio
Portrayed By: Jake Cunanan
Appeared In: Godzilla
A young Japanese boy who's separated from his parents on a monorail in Honolulu just before Godzilla and the male MUTO surface.- Adaptational Dumbass: In the film he's quite keenly aware of his surroundings, whereas in the novelization he doesn't seem to notice that he's been separated from his parents.
- Kid Amid the Chaos: He gets separated from his parents due to a mundane incident with a train's automated doors shutting on him, prompting Ford to watch out for him until they can get him back to his parents. Then Hokmuto shows up, and Ford ends up saving this boy from a potentially grievous death.
- Protectorate: He's one for Ford in the brief time he's in Ford's custody during the kaiju incident.
Bus Driver
Portrayed By: Dee Jay Jackson
Appeared In: Godzilla
A bus driver transporting children across the Golden Gate Bridge amidst the San Francisco evacuations, when Godzilla arrives.- Badass Driver: When Godzilla arrives at the Golden Gate Bridge just after the driver has been told to turn around, he manages to drive his vehicle full of kids through police and military barricades in the middle of an explosive skirmish between Godzilla and the Navy. He gets off the Golden Gate Bridge just before the massive Kaiju barges through it.
- Heroic Bystander: He's clearly just a civilian, yet the moment him and the bus full of kids he's transporting are caught between Godzilla and military gung-ho, he puts the pedal to the metal and gets them all to safety like a champ, despite the many obstacles in his vehicle's path.
Josh Valentine
Portrayed By: Julian Dennison
Appeared In: Godzilla vs. Kong
A young boy who allies with Madison and Bernie in their investigation of what is causing Godzilla's rampage.
- Brainy Brunette: He has dark hair, and although he's a little bit timid and isn't on the same intellectual level as Bernie and Madison, he makes up for these things by possessing people skills which the other two both lack; coming in handy when Madison is trying to track down Bernie. Josh apparently pirates media during his spare time, and although his efforts to perform Hollywood Hacking on Mechagodzilla's satellite uplink are useless, he does resourcefully find a way to cut the knot with seconds to spare before Mechagodzilla would have killed Kong.
- Cowardly Lion: He's definitely the timidest member of Team Godzilla, and if the other two decide to approach something that looks ominous, he will be the one to complain about it and be the last one to step through. But that doesn't stop him sticking by his allies and making himself useful where he can. Notably, Madison gives him the choice to accompany her or back out before she heads off to find Bernie Hayes, and he goes along.
- Cutting the Knot: Josh and Bernie are unable to hack into Mechagodzilla's control board, and Bernie gets ready to chug the flask of whisky he keeps for his darkest hour, giving Josh the idea to just dump the alcohol into the control panel to short-circuit it.
- Establishing Character Moment: When we first meet him showing up to Madison's house with his brother's stolen van, he's expressing nervousness about being caught for the act (despite his brother being immediately implied to be someone who wouldn't even notice), and he questions why he and Madison have to get involved in the current Titan crisis. When Maddie looks him in the eye and asks whether he's coming or staying, Josh replies with a brave face and nil hesitation that he's most certainly coming with her — then he goofs up his attempt to look like a toughie while opening the van door.
- Hollywood Hacking: Subverted. He tries doing this to Apex's computers, but randomly typing in pass codes just gets him locked out of the system.
- Logical Latecomer: He protests and tries to warn the other characters, including Madison Russell from the previous film, when they're heading toward instead of away from something that any practical-minded or common-sensed person would consider ominous and dangerous.
- Mature Younger Sibling: His brother, who owns the van he steals for Madison, is apparently an oblivious Disappointing Older Sibling, whereas Josh is a sharp and weary kid.
- The Meddling Kids Are Useless: Subverted. Although him, Bernie and Madison infiltrate Apex Cybernetics' secret facilities to investigate their role in Godzilla's rampage, for most of the movie they're only a kind of P.O.V. character for the audience to watch the mystery gradually unveil through, and they fail to make any meaningful impact on the plot. That is, until Mechagodzilla, possessed by Ghidorah's subconsciousness, is about to kill Kong after Godzilla has been heavily weakened, and Josh is in just the right place at just the right time to sabotage the computer controlling the Mecha's satellite link once Bernie gives Josh an idea.
- Mundane Solution: In the novelization, Team Godzilla at one point comes to a locked door in the Apex HQ with a keypad, and when Bernie asks Josh if he can hack it, Josh proposes they just take a nearby staircase instead.
- Nerd Glasses: He has browline/chunky-black glasses, has stereotypical-nerd levels of timidness, and is a hacker (his main specialty is movie piracy).
- Only Friend: Sort of. It's hinted in the movie, and confirmed by the novelization, that Josh is the only friend or acquaintance Madison has managed to make who is in her age group, since Mark enrolled her in a high school where all the other kids ostracize or pick on her. However, it should be noted that Madison feels she has adult friends and peers within Monarch.
- Only Sane by Comparison: Played With. Compared to Madison and Bernie who head toward unknown possible danger without much second thought if they think it'll get them closer to the answers they're after, Josh as the token Cowardly Lion is keenly aware and willing to point out when heading this way or that way isn't a safe idea.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Inverted. He's a source of quirks and humor like Bernie, although he's not quite as wacky as the latter, leaving Madison as the only serious member of Team Godzilla.
- Spanner in the Works: Team Godzilla's only role up until the Final Battle against Mechagodzilla is discovering the conspiracy behind Apex, but when Mechagodzilla is reprogrammed by Ghidorah's consciousness, Josh narrowly prevents Mechagodzilla from successfully killing Kong by pouring Bernie's flask of alcohol on Mechagodzilla's controls. Had it not been for that, Mechagodzilla would've likely beaten both Kong and Godzilla and gone on to threaten the whole world.
- Street Smart: Funnily enough, he, of all people, stands out amongst Team Godzilla for showing shades of this. Despite his nerdy and timid appearance, Josh is person-savvy enough to know precisely how to get Bernie's whereabouts from a store clerk when Madison was struggling to get what they were after, he's good at Cutting the Knot on the fly (this trait of his narrowly derails a Ghidorah-possessed Mechagodzilla's near-certain victory at a time when Madison was helpless and Bernie was about to give up), and he exhibits a practical spatial awareness and cautiousness of danger when he's accompanying Madison and Bernie through Apex.
- You Talk Too Much!: Bernie tells him this word-for-word in the novelization.
May Olowe-Hewitt
Coral Mateo
Portrayed By: Kiersey Clemons
Appeared In: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
A roguish American ex-patriate and a talented techy, who accompanies Kentaro and Cate Randa on their investigation into their father's disappearance.- Ambiguously Bi: She's heavily implied to be bisexual, but it's not been explicitly confirmed. She sleeps with Kentaro Randa the day she first meets him, and dates him for a while until their relationship eventually falls apart due to lack of communication. After Cate Randa helps save her when she falls into ice-water, May begins to warm towards her, and their interactions become increasingly affectionate and protective throughout the series—something that annoys Kentaro when he notices it—though it's not confirmed whether May is attracted to Cate or not. She also went on a dinner date with Brenda Holland before discovering the latter's true colors, and the pair act like mutually-betrayed ex-lovers in the present.
- Animal Lover: In her Troubled Backstory Flashback, she looks physically sick when she discovers the videos of AET's cruel experiments on primates, which her research was being used towards without her awareness. She's so horrified, in fact, that she wipes AET's database to make up for it, flushing her old life down the toilet in the process. She admits in the present that despite everything that her actions cost her, she still doesn't and won't regret it.
- Becoming the Mask: She admits in episode 7 that this has happened to her over the course of the series. At first, she was lying and was just trying to save her own skin when she started accompanying the Randas on their cross-global trek based on Bill Randa's files, but she grew closer to them and doesn't want to be that kind of person anymore.
- Curiosity Is a Crapshoot: Curiosity played a major part in her present day circumstances in her backstory, as revealed in her Troubled Backstory Flashback in "Will the Real May Please Stand Up?". While working for AET, Corah wanted to know what the secret project her tech work was being fed into was all about. After Brenda wouldn't answer her questions and told her that it was above her pay grade, Corah did some unauthorized digging of her own into AET's database at night, and she was horrified to discover that the Cybernetic Neuro-Interface Unit that AET was feeding her research into was inhumanely torturing monkeys with experimental brain implants. This led Corah to conscientiously wipe AET's database at the price of her earning the company's wrath and being forced to go on the run from them for three years; although she admits that she doesn't regret it, knowing that she did the right thing once she learned what her work was really being used for.
- Defector from Decadence: She used to work for a Seattle-based tech innovation company called Applied Experimental Technologies, the direct precursor to Apex Cybernetics, until she discovered their secret project that her research was being fed into, where they were conducting extremely horrific neural implant-based experiments on chimpanzees with cybernetics. She promptly wiped the company's database on moral principle at the cost of her being forced to go on the run. After getting caught by AET and confronted by Holland in the present, May admits that despite the grief it's caused her, she'll never regret what she did.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: When the Randas first approach her with Bill Randa's files, May is initially very cold, aloof and reluctant to help out beyond scientific curiosity. She later gets angry and blames Kentaro for getting her involved and putting her on the run from the life she made in Tokyo. After nearly dying during the encounter with the Frost Vark and being nursed by Cate and Lee, she warms up a lot more to Cate and Kentaro. The latter initially isn't enough to stop May from agreeing to become Duvall's mole amongst the Randas in exchange for getting her life back, but she later comes clean to them out of guilt. From the seventh episode onwards, she's a lot more openly protective and affectionate towards Cate.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": After the Randa half-siblings learn of May/Corah's past with AET and they reconcile with her, they ask her whether or not they should start calling her by her real name and she makes it clear she'd prefer they call her by the pseudonym they've always known her by up until now.
- Dreadlock Rasta: She's a freespirited, independent black woman who styles her hair in dreadlocks.
- Fire-Forged Friends: She at first wants little to nothing to do with Kentaro and Cate, already being bitter at Kentaro for ghosting her and considering his family drama with Cate to be his own problem, and she even agrees to being Duvall's mole at first. But by the end of the series' first season, May has grown a lot more loyal to the group, especially Cate, after traveling the world and enduring close brushes with death alongside them and after making some peace with her past with AET.
- Greed: In her backstory, she was enticed by money to join AET before she learned of their true colors. In the present, she's quite ashamed of it.
- Hates Rich People: She apparently doesn't think much of very well-off people in general, and she derides the title of Kentaro's official art show as pretentious when she first meets him. Her past with Brenda Holland might have a lot to do with this.
- Holding Hands: Cate and May hold hands at the end of Episode 4, relieved that they both made it out alive, and May thanks Cate for not leaving her behind. Cate and May also pointedly hold each-other's hands quite a lot throughout the final episode, by which time they've grown close to Ship Tease levels. In the latter episode's climax, Cate makes a point of grasping both Keiko and May's hands on either side of her in comfort as they're hurtling inside the pod towards the rift out of the Axis Mundi.
- Heroic Neutral: She just wants to go back to the life she's made for herself in Tokyo. By the end of "Will the Real May Please Stand Up?", she's grown a lot more loyal to the Randas, and in the following episode, they agree to help Monarch stop Shaw from potentially triggering a global apocalypse.
- Keeping Secrets Sucks: She secretly spies on the Randas for Duvall, but the guilt for betraying theirs (particularly Cate's) trust in such a way eats her up to the point where she comes clean about it out of guilt within less than two episodes.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: She had to abandon her old life as Corah Mateo because she committed cyber-terrorism against a powerful company that were conducting appallingly cruel experiments on monkeys with an experimental Brain/Computer Interface, and they'd been feeding her own work for them into it, to avoid their ire. She doesn't regret it, though, knowing that she did the right thing, only regretting that she allowed her greed to blind her into unwittingly aiding their evil before she reached that point.
- Not So Stoic: For the first two episodes, she presents herself as monotonous, cold and un-emotive to everything, but after going on the run as a result of Monarch coming after her and the Randas, she snaps at Kentaro for getting her involved in this and making her a fugitive.
- Shared Family Quirks: Her sister says that her tendency to think most people are idiots but help them when they need her is a Mateo family trait.
- Ship Tease: She becomes increasingly affectionate and touchy-feely with one of the main characters above everyone else as the series goes on: Cate.
- Techno Wizard: She's skilled at coding and hacking, helping decode the files that Cate and Kentaro discover in a hidden safe in their father's office. Her coding skills also got her hired by Applied Experimental Technologies until she discovered her work was being used in unethical experiments.
- Working with the Ex: She was romantically involved with Kentaro before breaking up with him, and is initially angry when he comes to her for help.
Du-Ho
Portrayed By: Bruce Baek
Appeared In: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
A pilot and an old friend of Lee Shaw, located in South Korea. He assists Shaw, May Olowe-Hewitt and the Randa half-siblings to reach Alaska in their search for Hiroshi's whereabouts.- Due to the Dead: Played With. Lee burns Du-Ho's body, but beyond giving his fallen friend a decent send-off, the fire primarily serves to attract a Monarch helicopter's attention for rescue.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Subverted. He keeps a bottle on his plane at all times "in case of emergencies", but it isn't alcohol — it's a bottle of water that he uses as a makeshift altitude indicator on his dashboard.
- Oh, Crap!: He freaks out and immediately makes a beeline back for his own plane the moment he sees the Frost Vark's claw-marks in the destroyed plane's fuselage and realizes that there's a giant, plane-downing monster up on the Alaskan mountain with the cast.
- Red Shirt: In the same episode where he's introduced, he's killed at the episode's end by the Frost Vark using its heat absorption to completely freeze-dry him in seconds, establishing the creature's power and the threat it poses to the remaining cast for the next episode. Lee manages to return to Du-Ho's body and give him a makeshift funeral pyre in Episode 4, reminiscing about their past with each-other as he does so.
- Stepford Smiler: Outwardly, he appears to have a larger-than-life and upbeat personality. During a tender private conversation with Cate, however, he reveals that he watched his own father, multiple girlfriends, and many other people die during his life.
Raymond Martin
Appeared In: Godzilla x Kong: The Hunted
The head of RM Construction, who uses his company's resources to build a crude anti-Titan mecha of his own dubbed the "Titan Hunter". Styling himself as a hunter, his utmost desire is to slaughter as many Titan lifeforms as possible, not caring in the slightest whether they're bad, good or even harmless, and he has his kills stuffed as morbid trophies.- Always a Bigger Fish: The Titan Hunter can tear through smaller, weaker Titans without too much effort. However, by Martin's own admission, it's not ready to fight the larger, stronger Titans like Godzilla. He's proven correct when he goes up against Kong, and while able to land some good hits, ends up tossed into a ravine for his trouble.
- Arbitrarily Large Bank Account: He is the head of a construction company, but he has enough resources to hire an army of goons, to build and maintain a Humongous Mecha that can briefly go toe-to-toe with Kong (something which the multi-billion Apex Cybernetics corporation struggled to make a reality), and to bribe Monarch itself and multiple other relevant agencies into turning a blind eye so that he'll have free reign to rampage for 48 hours. One has to wonder if he really got all that money from his construction company, or if Walter Simmons somehow left his entire fortune to him.
- Ax-Crazy: His utmost goal in life is killing as many Titans and Titan-adjacent creatures as possible using his Titan Hunter mech, and he targets passive and outright defenceless creatures on sight like the Sker Buffalo, and a pair of Spineprowler cubs that are too young to pose a threat — the latter he goes way out of his way to try and murder.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: Similar to Apex Cybernetics' brutal use of the Skullcrawlers as target practice for Mechagodzilla, Martin is practically a Serial Killer of megafauna who's illegally slaughtered numerous creatures from Kong's domain before the story's start, and he captures and brutally kills a Spineprowler to test his Titan Hunter. Worse yet, Martin attacks and slaughters a defenceless Sker Buffalo on sight (which disgusts even his own men), and then he outright chases and attempts to murder a pair of terrified Spineprowler cubs.
- Big Bad: He's the main antagonist of Godzilla x Kong: The Hunted, as his hunt with the Titan Hunter is the main threat and his actions also provoked Scylla into her rampage.
- Booby Trap: He uses a giant electric booby trap to capture the Spineprowler that previously picked a fight with Kong.
- Bullying a Dragon: While openly admitting the Titan Hunter isn't ready yet to fight the larger, stronger Titans, he ends up picking a fight with Kong despite knowing Kong is not only one of those larger, stronger Titans, but managed to do decently well in a fight against Godzilla himself. While the Titan Hunter does land some good hits and knock Kong down, Kong doesn't have too much trouble dispatching the mecha.
- Character Catchphrase: He keeps saying "Too easy!" when he's hunting Titans.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist:
- To Walter Simmons, Ren Serizawa and Apex Cybernetics in Godzilla vs. Kong. Like them, he's the head of a rich, shady organization who sees all Titans as a threat to humanity; seeking to best the Titans using a Humongous Mecha that he created, directly attacking one of the Protector Alpha Titans, and endangering hundreds of innocents in pursuit of his agenda by collaterally instigating Titan rampages. However, Apex were a shiny, chrome, well-dressed, hi-tech evil Research, Inc.; were largely cold and clinical in their desire to dominate the Titans, they had visionary ideals of ushering in a mega-corporate world hegemony with themselves at the top; sought to maintain a decent public image and ultimately be worshipped by the world via Engineered Heroics; and in the novelization, were banking on Godzilla escalating the destruction of a heavily populated city for their agenda. Raymond Martin on the other hand is a shabbily-dressed, self-styled hunter whose technology has a more rustic and patchwork aesthetic; has a much more emotional and less long-sighted desire to personally kill as many monsters as possible for his own catharsis with no higher end-goal; and he doesn't care about public image beyond bribing anyone that might get in his way to turn the other cheek; and sets up his beacons in comparitvely isolated areas.
- He also starkly contrasts Colonel Lee Shaw in the preceding overall MonsterVerse instalment, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. Both men tragically lost the people they loved to a hostile Titan creature, which motivates their present day actions; both of them lead an illegal organization and believe they're protecting humanity against monster threats, and both tend to let their emotions cloud their judgment and actions in the long run. However, Shaw was an Anti-Villain with a military background who recognized that some of the Titans like Godzilla are in fact humanity's allies, he had no personal hatred for the hostile Titans, and he simply wanted to cut the Hollow Earth off from the surface so that the Titans couldn't encroach on humanity's world — Martin, who instead has a background as a construction company executive, is an Ax-Crazy Knight Templar who murderously despises all monsters, seeking to sate his bloodlust on personally slaughtering as many of them as he can, and he doesn't distinguish in the slightest between monsters which are actually a threat and ones which aren't. Shaw had staunch moral limits to how far he would go in the name of his plan, refusing to sacrifice lives, and in the end he sided with the heroes — Martin on the other hand has no line that he won't cross to sate his anti-monster bloodlust, which disgusts even his men when he starts slaughtering non-threatening creatures and targeting infant creatures on sight, and he dies completely unrepentant for his crimes. Shaw had a personal chip on his shoulder towards Monarch, and formed a Renegade Splinter Faction from them, whereas Martin has no connection to nor interest in Monarch beyond bribing them to look the other way while he rampages. Shaw had a very personal connection to the main human heroes in his work, whereas Martin has no connection to Bernie Hayes in his work and the two never even meet.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Martin is clearly extremely intelligent and competent, and the Titan Hunter is, while not as powerful as Mechagodzilla and outclassed by the larger Titans, able to handle the weaker ones fairly easily and at least last a few minutes against the larger ones. Despite this, he decides to use it for hunting Titans as part of his personal obsession.
- Disney Villain Death: Kong pushes the Titan Hunter off a cliff, causing it to be damaged beyond repair. Martin himself survives the fall, at least until he's found by the Spineprowler cubs.
- Eaten Alive: He's eaten by a pair of Spineprowler cubs, and it's completely deserved.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: As ruthless as he may be, it's clear that he's still suffering from the death of his family to this day.
- Even Evil Has Standards: While he sets up beacons to distract Godzilla from his tests, they're usually set up in relatively isolated locations, as opposed to population centers. When Scylla ends up attacking and destroying a power plant, he looks on with a horrified expression, flashing back to the loss of his family. This gets downplayed as he immediately uses this as "proof" that titans are a threat.
- Every Scar Has a Story: He got the scars on his face when Femuto attacked a building that was holding him and his family — his family died in that incident, the which is the catalyst for his monster-murdering rampage in the present.
- Exit, Pursued by a Bear: He is last seen at the mercy of two Spineprowler cubs whose mother he has killed. His fate was probably less than pleasant.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: He has glaring scars almost like claw marks running from his mouth down to his throat, and he's a truly vile and evil piece of work.
- Karmic Death: He meets his end by the otherwise-defenceless Spineprowler cubs that he went out of his way to try and murder using the Titan Hunter, and after he killed their mother. For extra irony, he is killed by creatures avenging their family, the same way he was motivated by the loss of his own.
- Knight Templar: He sees himself as a Hunter of Monsters who's completely in the right. In reality, he's a monstrously self-serving madman, who murders completely non-threatening creatures like the Sker Buffalo, and he hounds and attempts to murder a pair of defenceless cubs before attempting to murder the most philanthropic living Alpha Titan on the planet, proving in the end that humans sometimes really are the true monsters.
- The Lost Lenore: His wife was killed by the MUTO female in his backstory, and it's 20% of the reason why he's now a psychopath thirsty for all monster life's blood to a point which goes into and beyond Van Helsing Hate Crimes.
- Muggle Power: Type 2. He murderously despises all Titans and Sub-Titans regardless of whether they're hostile, benign or outright protective, or even if they're cute and completely defenceless cubs, and he believes that every last one of them should be wiped out. He seeks to kill as many monsters as he can using the Titan Hunter.
- Mythology Gag: His name seems to be a combination of Steve Martin, the main character of Godzilla: King of the Monsters! (1956) (the American dub of the original Godzilla movie), and Raymond Burr, the actor who played said character.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: He prattles on about the Titans and the threat they pose after seeing Scylla's rampage; ostensibly his creation of the Titan Hunter is to combat this threat. However, it's ultimately shown this he's mainly motivated by revenge for his own personal losses.
- Offscreen Villain Dark Matter: For the head of a mere construction company, he's somehow able to fund cartoonish levels of villainy. He has his own private army, a gigantic base, a Humongous Mecha, and he effortlessly bribes every other agency that might interfere with his Titan murder sprees, including Monarch itself, to look the other way.
- Oh, Crap!: He lets out a loud gulp when he realizes that he's about to be devoured by the two Spineprowler cubs.
- Outliving One's Offspring: His son was killed by the MUTO female in his backstory, and it's 20% of the reason why he's now a psychopath thirsty for all monster life's blood to a point which goes into and beyond Van Helsing Hate Crimes.
- Shoddy Knockoff Product: His giant mech, the Titan Hunter, a blatant copy of Apex Industries' Mechagodzilla. However, this machine is worse is practically every respect; it lacks any ranged weapons, is much smaller and less durable, requires the pilot to be physically inside it rather than telepathically controlling it from a distance, and is absolutely no match for larger Titans like Godzilla or Kong. It even looks much cheaper, resembling repurposed construction equipment and having its wires all exposed. If
Word of God regarding Mechagodzilla's hypothetical three trillion dollar budget is taken into account, then the Titan Hunter, costing a comparatively meagre five-hundred million, is six-thousand times cheaper. - Sinister Shades: He wears black glasses, and he's more of a monster than the literal monsters that he hunts.
- Sole Survivor: He was the only member of his family to survive when Femuto destroyed the building they were in.
- Suicidal Overconfidence: After a string of fairly easy wins, Martin decides to pick a fight with Kong rather than cut his losses, despite having previously admitted the Titan Hunter wasn't ready to fight the larger, stronger Titans. This proves to be his undoing, as the Titan Hunter is ultimately overpowered and chucked into a ravine, scrapping it.
- Taxidermy Is Creepy: He has all the Titans he killed stuffed and put on display in a room, which doesn't earn him any sympathy points.
- Tragic Bigot: His parents, wife and children were all killed around him during a Titan attack while he came out of the attack with gruesome scars — as a result, he murderously despises all megafauna and he commits his life and resources to killing as many as he possibly can, not discriminating in the slightest between good and bad or outright harmless.
- Trophy Room: The creepy hunter kind. He has a facility filled with the stuffed corpses of Skull Island and Hollow Earth megafauna that he's killed before the start of The Hunted.
- Troubled Backstory Flashback: His backstory as a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds is revealed when he flashes back to it just before receiving news of Scylla's attack on the Indian nuclear power plant.
- Van Helsing Hate Crimes: Big time. He doesn't discriminate in the slightest when looking for Titans or other megafauna to kill in the Titan Hunter — whether they be Destroyers, Protectors, or no threat to people, he'll eagerly try to kill them all on sight. A major part of what makes him so despicable despite his backstory is that he gleefully slaughters a Sker Buffalo on sight (which even his men are appalled by), then he pursues and attempts to slaughter two defenceless Spineprowler cubs, and then he happily tries to murder one of the world's two most heroic living Alpha Titans. Notably, his preferred hunting ground is the Hollow Earth, where the Titans are just living in their natural environment and not hurting anyone.
- Villainous Breakdown: He raves angrily at the "injustice" when Kong defeats his Titan Hunter in their fight and leaves it dangling over a cliff.
- Villain Protagonist: He's the Big Bad and the main human character of Godzilla x Kong: The Hunted.
- White Hair, Black Heart: He has white hair to go with his mean scars and his sinister shades, and he's the main antagonist of the comic, a bloodthirsty monster-killer who terrorizes and attempts to murder Kong's most benign and defenceless charges as well as Kong himself.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: He lost is entire family — his wife, son and parents — and was himself left physically scarred when they were all caught in the female MUTO's rampage on G-Day Minus One. As a result, he's now an Ax-Crazy Titan hunter with a major chip on his shoulder regarding anything with Titan biology; inavertedly endangering people by luring Titan away with diversions, and building a Humongous Mecha so that he can murder and stuff as many monsters he comes across as possible — even if they're passive gentle giants like the Sker Buffalo, or defenceless Titan babies like the Spineprowler cubs.
- Would Hurt a Child: Upon coming across a pair of Spineprowler cubs while looking for their mother, he immediately tries to kill them. Worse yet, after he defeats their protective mother, he goes out of his way to hunt down and try to kill the fleeing cubs anyway.
- You Killed My Father:
- He hates Titans with a passion and wants to kill as many as he can because one of them (Femuto) caused the death of his family.
- He eventually finds himself on the receiving end of this trope as well. After he kills a mother Spineprowler, her two cubs go after him in revenge.
