Vera Farmiga joins the cast of 'Godzilla: King of the Monsters'

Godzilla: King of the Monsters is shaping up to have a pretty great cast, and while I didn't initially have much interest in a sequel to the 2014 monster hit, Michael Dougherty's film is quickly climbing my most anticipated list. A few weeks ago, Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown was cast as the lead, giving the breakout actress her first major role in a motion picture. Last week, Kyle Chandler was cast as Bobby Brown's father, giving an added element of prestige to the monster sequel. Yesterday, the cast got even better, as Vera Farmiga has joined King of the Monsters. The star of Bates Motel and the Conjuring franchise will play Bobby Brown's mother, completing the family at the center of the Godzilla sequel. As for other members of the cast, Variety is reporting that Ken Watanabe, who played Dr. Ishiro Serizawa in the original, will be the only actor to return for King of the Monsters. That means audiences won't be able to reunite with Elizabeth Olsen, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, David Strathairn, and more, who all played characters that nobody really cared about in the first place. 

Like I said to kick off this article, my excitement for King of the Monsters is quickly growing. Bobby Brown, Chandler, and Farmiga make for a formidable trio, and I can't imagine this cast getting much better. Farmiga is an especially important addition for this film. She's all kinds of underrated and brilliant in James Wan's Conjuring films, and she also did great work in Source Code and Martin Scorsese's The Departed. However, the cast is only one piece of the puzzle. This seems like a fairly obvious thing to say, but King of the Monsters will not work without a good script from Dougherty, Max Borenstein, and Zach Shields. Remember- the first film had a pretty great cast too. Who wasn't excited to see a Godzilla film with Bryan Cranston? But in the end, Borenstein's screenplay was a disappointment and Gareth Edwards' direction was a letdown. Time will tell if King of the Monsters can succeed where Godzilla failed. 

Image Credits: IMDB