Godzilla: King of the Monsters (marketed as Godzilla II: King of the Monsters in some territories) is a 2019 American monster film directed and co-written by Michael Dougherty . A sequel to Godzilla (2014), it is the 35th film in the Godzilla franchise , the third film in Legendary 's MonsterVerse , and the third Godzilla film to be completely produced by a Hollywood studio. The film stars Kyle Chandler , Vera Farmiga , Millie Bobby Brown , Bradley Whitford , Sally Hawkins , Charles Dance , Thomas Middleditch , Aisha Hinds , O'Shea Jackson Jr. , David Strathairn , Ken Watanabe , and Zhang Ziyi . The film is dedicated to executive producer Yoshimitsu Banno and Haruo Nakajima , the original Godzilla suit performer, who both died in 2017.