When Godzilla and King Kong last graced the screen together, it was in a battle royale – going toe-to-toe (one hairy, one scaly) in Adam Wingard’s Godzilla Vs. Kong. Now, they’re begrudgingly teaming up. The kaiju duo are united in Wingard’s upcoming sequel Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire – a film whose streetwear-collab-aping title confirms that, yes, they’re working together this time. But as the filmmaker tells Empire, Skull Island’s finest and the nuclear-powered lizard aren’t exactly best friends.

“There’s a bit of a truce — Godzilla’s in control of the surface world and Kong is down in Hollow Earth,” explains Wingard of where the sequel finds the pair. “It wasn’t, ‘Okay, give me a call when something goes wrong, Kong. And I, Godzilla, will rush to the rescue!’” But when the threat of new simian villain Skar King looms, an alliance is necessary – bringing together a mismatched duo on an epic scale. “The buddy-cop dysfunctional relationship dynamic is probably the best one to describe Godzilla and Kong,” says Wingard, noting Lethal Weapon as one of his favourites in the genre. “My influences are always embedded with the ‘80s, and the ‘80s were prime for [that] storyline.” Prepare for all the crossed wires that you’d expect – just, with two cantankerous creatures who can’t actually speak. “There’s a lot of misunderstanding – the way that the monsters communicate isn’t straightforward.”

As well as working together, both Godzilla and Kong are facing their own evolutions this time – with big stakes for Kong (“There’s a personal journey that Kong’s going through,” Wingard teases) and a literal pink glow-up for Godzilla. “This is his version of a training routine,” he says of the big lizard’s transformation. “I’m really big into Shaw Brothers martial arts. Those films are always about, ‘Here’s a big threat, and you have to do all these things to pump yourself up so that you can take on that threat.’” Get ready for a monster-load of bang for your buck. “You’re gonna see lots of different versions of Godzilla in this movie.” Sound the kaiju alarm.