Could Kong show up in the world of Godzilla?

[Destoroyah of Worlds]

Where did you hear that the character and not just the film will go PD?

The rights to the novel version of Kong are already public domain. "King Kong" the movie becomes public domain in 2029. This includes the character King Kong. They can include a giant ape named Kong or King Kong in a any Toho movie from that point on. They can adapt the story to Kong and King Kong too. They just can't title the whatever films they make "King Kong." This is how public domain works.

Same thing will happen with Superman in a few years. People will have publishing rights to the character and his stories. They just can't title the films "Superman" or "Action Comics"

Allow me to post this one more time : https://www.reddit.com/r/GODZILLA/comme ... ill_enter/

I'm pretty sure it explicitly states that only the original 1933 movie will go PD and not the character.

That reddit post doesn't have a good understanding of how PD works.

Toho can use the novel version of the character now and adapt the film version of the character King Kong starting in 2029. They just can't title the films "King Kong", label merchandise (such as toys) "King Kong," or use King Kong designs and story ideas from King Kong movies past 1933.

Toho can get around this by naming the movies and merchandise "Kong" but calling him "King Kong" in the scripts.

Universal is only entitled to the rights to 1940s-Present King Kong movies and merchandizing rights to the name "King Kong"

[LegendZilla]

The rights to the novel version of Kong are already public domain. "King Kong" the movie becomes public domain in 2029. This includes the character King Kong. They can include a giant ape named Kong or King Kong in a any Toho movie from that point on. They can adapt the story to Kong and King Kong too. They just can't title the whatever films they make "King Kong." This is how public domain works.

Same thing will happen with Superman in a few years. People will have publishing rights to the character and his stories. They just can't title the films "Superman" or "Action Comics"

Allow me to post this one more time : https://www.reddit.com/r/GODZILLA/comme ... ill_enter/

I'm pretty sure it explicitly states that only the original 1933 movie will go PD and not the character.

That reddit post doesn't have a good understanding of how PD works.

Toho can use the novel version of the character now and adapt the film version of the character King Kong starting in 2029. They just can't title the films "King Kong", label merchandise (such as toys) "King Kong," or use King Kong designs and story ideas from King Kong movies past 1933.

Toho can get around this by naming the movies and merchandise "Kong" but calling him "King Kong" in the scripts.

Universal is only entitled to the rights to 1940s-Present King Kong movies and merchandizing rights to the name "King Kong"

Thanks for clarifying. In that case, (King) Kong will probably go full PD in the year 2043.

[miguelnuva]

Allow me to post this one more time : https://www.reddit.com/r/GODZILLA/comme ... ill_enter/

I'm pretty sure it explicitly states that only the original 1933 movie will go PD and not the character.

That reddit post doesn't have a good understanding of how PD works.

Toho can use the novel version of the character now and adapt the film version of the character King Kong starting in 2029. They just can't title the films "King Kong", label merchandise (such as toys) "King Kong," or use King Kong designs and story ideas from King Kong movies past 1933.

Toho can get around this by naming the movies and merchandise "Kong" but calling him "King Kong" in the scripts.

Universal is only entitled to the rights to 1940s-Present King Kong movies and merchandizing rights to the name "King Kong"

Thanks for clarifying. In that case, (King) Kong will probably go full PD in the year 2043.

Nope, whoever has the rights to King Kong can just re up them at some point.

[LegendZilla]

That reddit post doesn't have a good understanding of how PD works.

Toho can use the novel version of the character now and adapt the film version of the character King Kong starting in 2029. They just can't title the films "King Kong", label merchandise (such as toys) "King Kong," or use King Kong designs and story ideas from King Kong movies past 1933.

Toho can get around this by naming the movies and merchandise "Kong" but calling him "King Kong" in the scripts.

Universal is only entitled to the rights to 1940s-Present King Kong movies and merchandizing rights to the name "King Kong"

Thanks for clarifying. In that case, (King) Kong will probably go full PD in the year 2043.

Nope, whoever has the rights to King Kong can just re up them at some point.

Sadly, I think corporations like Disney will lobby to abolish the PD all together one day.

[miguelnuva]

Thanks for clarifying. In that case, (King) Kong will probably go full PD in the year 2043.

Nope, whoever has the rights to King Kong can just re up them at some point.

Sadly, I think corporations like Disney will lobby to abolish the PD all together one day.

Disney would lose a lot of their animation as most of the Disney animated movies come from PD.

[Vakanai]

Nope, whoever has the rights to King Kong can just re up them at some point.

Sadly, I think corporations like Disney will lobby to abolish the PD all together one day.

Disney would lose a lot of their animation as most of the Disney animated movies come from PD.

I think they meant abolish things ever falling into the PD ever again. It's literally impossible to take myths, legends, fairy tales, and folk tales out of public domain.

[LegendZilla]

Sadly, I think corporations like Disney will lobby to abolish the PD all together one day.

Disney would lose a lot of their animation as most of the Disney animated movies come from PD.

I think they meant abolish things ever falling into the PD ever again. It's literally impossible to take myths, legends, fairy tales, and folk tales out of public domain.

The last deadline allowing for companies to lobby to extend copyright duration time was in 2019 and surprisingly, Disney did not do anything.

[Vakanai]

Disney would lose a lot of their animation as most of the Disney animated movies come from PD.

I think they meant abolish things ever falling into the PD ever again. It's literally impossible to take myths, legends, fairy tales, and folk tales out of public domain.

The last deadline allowing for companies to lobby to extend copyright duration time was in 2019 and surprisingly, Disney did not do anything.

Guess they're going to double down on trademark laws then. They probably see an angle there to make public domain use of their stuff seem like a foolhardy thing to mess with.

[miguelnuva]

I think they meant abolish things ever falling into the PD ever again. It's literally impossible to take myths, legends, fairy tales, and folk tales out of public domain.

The last deadline allowing for companies to lobby to extend copyright duration time was in 2019 and surprisingly, Disney did not do anything.

Guess they're going to double down on trademark laws then. They probably see an angle there to make public domain use of their stuff seem like a foolhardy thing to mess with.

They'll probably due what DC did with Superman and trademark all the important parts of said characters.

[Vakanai]

The last deadline allowing for companies to lobby to extend copyright duration time was in 2019 and surprisingly, Disney did not do anything.

Guess they're going to double down on trademark laws then. They probably see an angle there to make public domain use of their stuff seem like a foolhardy thing to mess with.

They'll probably due what DC did with Superman and trademark all the important parts of said characters.

Makes sense to me. The way it was explained, once you take away all the things that are trademarked to Superman and DC, and subtract the things that still won't fall into PD for a long while to come...it just comes across too much as "not Superman" to be worth bothering with.

[Gigantis]

Quite honestly considering how bonkers Toho has gotten with Godzilla as of late, a modern Toho take on Kong has me legitimately curious to see what the heck they could cook up.

[Denis]

If King Kong appears in World of Godzilla, I hope they make him have his own story, don’t let him fight Godzilla or something. Have a story focused on him, on Skull Island or something

[LegendZilla]

If King Kong appears in World of Godzilla, I hope they make him have his own story, don’t let him fight Godzilla or something. Have a story focused on him, on Skull Island or something

You mean like give him his own movie at first, then have him face off against Godzilla like how the Monsterverse did?

[Denis]

If King Kong appears in World of Godzilla, I hope they make him have his own story, don’t let him fight Godzilla or something. Have a story focused on him, on Skull Island or something

You mean like give him his own movie at first, then have him face off against Godzilla like how the Monsterverse did?

No have his own series, in the same universe, but don’t have him face off against Godzilla.

[LegendZilla]

If King Kong appears in World of Godzilla, I hope they make him have his own story, don’t let him fight Godzilla or something. Have a story focused on him, on Skull Island or something

You mean like give him his own movie at first, then have him face off against Godzilla like how the Monsterverse did?

No have his own series, in the same universe, but don’t have him face off against Godzilla.

That's like having a Mothra film series in the same continuity, yet never having her cross paths with Godzilla. It's just something unavoidable at this point I'm afraid.

[Denis]

You mean like give him his own movie at first, then have him face off against Godzilla like how the Monsterverse did?

No have his own series, in the same universe, but don’t have him face off against Godzilla.

That's like having a Mothra film series in the same continuity, yet never having her cross paths with Godzilla. It's just something unavoidable at this point I'm afraid.

Not really they did that in the Showa era, even though it was just one film. I would prefer they do a spinoff series on Skull Island or something.

[Voyager]

No have his own series, in the same universe, but don’t have him face off against Godzilla.

That's like having a Mothra film series in the same continuity, yet never having her cross paths with Godzilla. It's just something unavoidable at this point I'm afraid.

Not really they did that in the Showa era, even though it was just one film. I would prefer they do a spinoff series on Skull Island or something.

But that doesn’t matter since they already fought in 62.

[Cosbydaf]

No have his own series, in the same universe, but don’t have him face off against Godzilla.

Why not?

[Denis]

No have his own series, in the same universe, but don’t have him face off against Godzilla.

Why not?

Because we just had a rematch, there’s really no point of doing it again.

Added in 1 minute 34 seconds:

That's like having a Mothra film series in the same continuity, yet never having her cross paths with Godzilla. It's just something unavoidable at this point I'm afraid.

Not really they did that in the Showa era, even though it was just one film. I would prefer they do a spinoff series on Skull Island or something.

But that doesn’t matter since they already fought in 62.

It’s very unlikely Toho would do another rematch a few years after GvK.

[LegendZilla]

No have his own series, in the same universe, but don’t have him face off against Godzilla.

Why not?

Because we just had a rematch, there’s really no point of doing it again.

Another face-off between Godzilla and Kong within our lifetime won't hurt. So long as it doesn't happen too soon after the one we just got. Having him being a regular in the Godzilla franchise would be good for variety, since having Mothra, Ghidorah and MG almost every time just gets redundant.