Godzilla movies don’t really have a reputation for being at the forefront of women in film, but that could change with the upcoming Godzilla: King of the Monsters. The movie features two female leads in Vera Farmiga and her on-screen daughter Millie Bobby Brown, and that combination is something unique to the franchise.
“The previous Godzilla really focused on the relationship of a father and a son,” Farmiga told Total Film, according to Syfy. “At the heart of our film is this relationship between a mother and daughter.” In the movie, Farmiga portrays Dr. Emma Russell, a scientist who invents a machine that allows humans to communicate with other Kaiju. She and her daughter Madison (Brown) are kidnapped by the monster-hunting organization Monarch in the film, and they learn of Madison’s link to Mothra.
The female-focused story is potentially groundbreaking for the franchise, with Farmiga telling the magazine the film “might be one of the first Godzilla that passes the Bechdel test.” The three-decades-old Bechdel test is a simple one that many movies fail. All it requires is for two women on screen to have a conversation with each other that isn’t about a man. According to Syfy, two previous Godzilla films do pass the test, albeit by slim margins: 1998’s Godzilla and 1989’s Godzilla vs. Biollante. 2014’s Godzilla does not pass the test.
We’ve loved just about everything we’ve seen and heard from the next Godzilla movie so far, and this news only sweetens the pot. We’ll get to see how it all comes together when the film hits theaters on May 31.
