The first season of Netflix’s Skull Island has been released as a continuation of Legendary’s Monsterverse saga, and in the course of six episodes, it has managed to captivate viewers with a unique take on the land locked in time. The series revolves around groups of shipwrecked humans with differing motivations who end up on Skull Island, and as they come across the strange megafauna of the place, they learn that escaping from this godforsaken place is as challenging as locating it in the first place. In the first season, the series introduces significant plot points that act as hints for future seasons and end with a cliffhanger that leaves viewers wondering about the fates of the characters. We would like to briefly discuss those plot points and the roles they might play to shaping up season two.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happened To Charlie, Mike, And Cap?
Due to the attack of a giant squid monster, both Cap’s crew and Irene’s mercenaries ended up being stranded on Skull Island, and their later attempts to escape were foiled by the monster as well. In the meantime, Charlie had witnessed the gesture of enmity between the prime beings of the Island: Kong, the giant ape, and the squid monster. As the stranded group of humans tries to come up with a plan to escape, Charlie suggests luring Kong into a battle with the squid monster, which will provide enough time and distraction to conduct a rescue operation.
As planned, Charlie and Annie, using Dog in their stead, steal one of Kong’s memorabilia and bring him to the seashore, where a vicious battle between two primal beasts ensues. En route, in order to ease up the pain of the injured Dog, Charlie decided to jump ship and was lost inside the jungle, where native islanders caught him, contemplating punishing him for committing transgressions against Kong. In search of his son, Cap went inside the jungle too and was attacked by a giant centipede. Mike came to his rescue. Previously, Mike was suffering from an infection caused by the poisonous tentacle of the squid monster, and as a result, after rescuing Cap, he fainted on the spot. Meanwhile, as the battle ends with the squid monster’s death, a massive tidal wave caused by the conflict between two Titans washes away the shoreline, resulting in Annie going unconscious and getting separated from Dog. Later, as Annie wakes up, she finds herself at a city hospital, admitted by her mother Irene, and none of the other characters are to be seen.
The question of the survival of Charlie, Mike, and Cap arises immediately, along with the query of whether they made it back to the mainland. With an opportunistic leader like Irene calling the shots, it’s not entirely impossible that she decided to ditch other stranded ones to escape with her daughter, which will result in the next season being centered around the trio trying to survive on the Island against all odds. We also don’t get to know about the fate of Kong and other Titans, i.e whether, like in the previous installments, egotistical humans brought him or other creatures of the Island to the mainland or not.
Where Does ‘Skull Island’ Posit Itself In The Monsterverse Timeline?
The animated series Skull Island is supposed to be a part of Legendary’s interconnected worldbuilding surrounding primeval monstrous beings known as Titans, otherwise known as the Monsterverse. So far, through the four live-action movies in the series, we have seen the two dominant Titans—Kong and Godzilla—saving humanity from other threats and even clashing with each other on one occasion. With Kong’s journey already highlighted in the movies Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla vs. Kong, the question arises: where does the animated series fit amidst all this?
The events of the first Monsterverse movie on Kong were set in the 70s when Conrad and his team arrived at Skull Island and met all forms of monstrosities the place had to offer. They also showcased the Skullcrawlers, Kong’s primary enemies. The next time we saw Kong in live action was after a substantial time gap in the present-day world when he fought Godzilla. It should be mentioned that Kong had grown a lot during this time gap, and as the animated series portrays Kong in his original proportion and also shows the presence of Skullcrawlers, among other threats, it leads us to believe that events in the series take place immediately after Kong: Skull Island, which might also explain another situation not addressed in later movies: how humans entrapped Kong in Skull Island in the first place.
The Role Of The Monarch
The secretive global monster tracker organization, Monarch, has been at the center of events in almost all of the Monsterverse movies, carefully monitoring the activity of the elusive Titans and setting up the pieces to pit them against each other. In “Kong: Skull Island,” it was due to Monarch’s expedition that the Island was discovered, and since that point in time, Skull Island has been under observation by the group, who later built a trap for Kong on the Island. Although the first season of the series doesn’t explicitly mention the organization, their Monarch is very much present in the narrative, as hinted at through the presence of some known Titans. The next season is surely going to shed light on how Kong was entrapped in his own home.
Exploration Of Hollow Earth
In the Monsterverse lore, Hollow Earth is a mystical subterranean habitat near Earth’s core that has an inexplicable gravitational force working in the vicinity along with strong radioactive waves. This primeval place has its own ecosystem and unique biosphere, which act as the birthplace and natural habitat for the ancient Titans. In the live-action movies, viewers have seen the temple of Godzilla situated near the Hollow Earth, and in Godzilla vs. Kong, the entire location is showcased as Kong ventures there to discover his ancestral place.
In the animated series, as Cap and others try to make sense of the unique biosphere of Skull Island, Cap proposes the idea of the place being an access point to Hollow Earth, which might allow the ecology of the Island to grow in such a secluded and unique way. A following season is surely going to build upon a journey to the Hollow Earth, and the still-stranded characters like Cap, Mike, and Charlie will be the ones to take the lead in the expedition.
