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Warning: SPOILERS for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire are ahead!
With the exception of Rebecca Hall’s Dr. Ilene Andrews, Kaylee Hottle’s Jia and Brian Tyree Henry’s Bernie Hayes, every human cast member in the Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire cast is comprised of new people, although only one character has as prominent a role as the aforementioned three. Dan Stevens’ Trapper is introduced as an old friend of Ilene’s who’s called in to replace Kong’s infected tooth. So as the Godzilla x Kong press circuit was happening, someone asked Stevens the hard-hitting question: how does one become a kaiju dentist?
It was Vulture that inquired on this aspect of Trapper’s backstory while speaking to Stevens ahead of Godzilla x Kong’s release on the 2024 movies schedule. Here’s what the actor had to say about how his character got into this unusual kind of work:
I think he’s had a bit of a checkered career. He was academically on par with Dr. Andrews back in the day, or at least they shared a few classes together at college. We had the thought that perhaps his parents ran a zoo. And he would go off around the world on these wild trips. There are very few jungles or deserts that he hasn’t been to. So therefore there’s very little that fazes him, and he could transition to treating titanic-size creatures very easily. I guess he’s like a cross between a Steve Irwin or Bear Grylls, with a bit of Ace Ventura and Crocodile Dundee peppered in there.
When we meet Trapper in the fifth MonsterVerse movie (the other four can be streamed with a Max subscription), Ilene Andrews mentions that this is just the latest job Trapper has undertaken, as following his years of experiences with “normal” animals, he decided to put his skills to good use as the world’s only veterinarian to treat Titans. Like Dan Stevens said, Trapper takes dealing with these gigantic monsters in stride, and all of those mentioned individuals from both real life and other movies meld together to make him one of the more colorful characters in this franchise. It’s also Trapper’s idea to later outfit Kong with the yellow gauntlet known as Project Powerhouse after his hand becomes frostbitten from an encounter with Shimo, an ice Titan being controlled by The Skar King.
Trapper manages to make it out of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire alive with Ilene, Jia and Bernie, and I don’t know about you, but I’d be interested to see more of him treating Titans… or at least the ones who are more open to human contact. Will that happen though? It’s hard to say, because although director Adam Wingard has teased plans for a third Godzilla/Kong movie, it hasn’t been officially greenlit yet. Also, as indicated earlier, the MonsterVerse usually only brings back a few established characters with each new movie, so there’s no guarantee that even if this next movie moves forward, Trapper will make the cut.
CinemaBlend’s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire review rated the movie 4 out of 5 stars, so if you haven’t already, head to the theater to see it and determine if you agree with that score or not. Otherwise, just keep your eyes peeled for more updates on what lays ahead for the MonsterVerse.