The first official images have been released for the long-awaited Godzilla sequel, Godzilla: King of the Monsters. It’s been a whopping five years since we’ve seen Gareth Edwards epic incarnation of the classic monster, and while he’s not returning for the follow-up, the spirit is alive and well in the sequel with director Michael Dougherty in charge this time around. EW recently sat down with Dougherty who had some very exciting things to say about the sequel.

Real time has passed from the first to second film, and just as it would happen in the real world, that’s still a close enough time period where people are still getting used to the idea of a gigantic lizard being real:

“The world is reacting to Godzilla in the same way we would react to any other terrifying incident, in that we are overreacting,” says director Michael Dougherty, whose previous credits include the horror movie Krampus. Godzilla hasn’t been seen since that destructive finale, “but there’s paranoia and endless speculation about whether he is the only one out there or whether we’re threatened by others like his kind.”

Now just as Dougherty teases, his film makes it clear from the beginning that Godzilla isn’t the only monster roaming the planet, specifically the three most popular creatures aside from Godzilla himself: the three-headed Ghidorah, the huge insect Mothra, and another flying beast called Rodan. Dougherty takes time to focus on Rodan in his next comments, which could tease big things to come for the flying beast next year:

“Rodan’s been kind of a sidekick character, but I’ve always had a soft spot for him” says Dougherty. “In a lot of ways he’s more powerful than Godzilla. He’s like this winged A-bomb. I think we’ve done him justice.”

While the film will have no shortage of monsters, it’ll be the human characters we see this story unfold through. Those characters will be played by Vera Farmiga (The Commuter, The Conjuring 2) who will be portraying Dr. Emma Russell scientist who is working under the wings of Monarch. Her daughter, Madison, will be played by Millie Bobby Brown of Stranger Things fame, and together, they will be kidnapped by an organization Dougherty describes as “a mysterious organization, with their own plans for the creatures.”

As for a male lead? That lands on the shoulders of Kyle Chandler (Game Night., Bloodline). While we’re not sure if he’ll stick around for the insanely anticipated Godzilla vs. Kong, which would be his second time alongside the either wonder of the world, he’ll be playing Dr. Emma Russell’s ex-husband Mark Russell in the film. After Emma and Madison are kidnapped for unknown reasons at the moment, he journeys out to save them with two members of Monarch and the only two returning cast members from Godzilla, Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins.

I’m absolutely loving everything I’m hearing and seeing from this sequel so far. I was pleasantly surprised by the first movie. While yes, the movie did huge Godzilla way too long for anyone’s liking, I have no doubt that Michael Dougherty will give the fans what they want and in the words of Ken Watanabe himself: let them fight. Let’s just hope the human protagonists are strong enough to keep out interest this time around.

What do you think of these first look images and comments? Did you like Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla? Did it leave you wanting more from this universe? With so many monsters in the follow-up, are you excited to see it all go down? Godzilla: King of the Monsters smashes into theater next summer on May 31st, 2019.