Also, the identity of the character as Japanese is lost: "In the 28 films made by Toho, Godzilla is unmistakably identified as one of "wareware Nihonjin" (we Japanese). After liberating San Francisco from the spawning MUTOs, Godzilla is thus crowned as a defender of the United States." Ed Godziszewski (author of "The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Godzilla") felt that the film did not provide much social commentary like previous "Godzilla" films, stating, "The 2014 film paid superficial lip service at best to the nuclear issue, but really there's almost nothing of substance there. Rather than offering caution about nuclear energy, the new film almost gives you the idea that nuclear weapons are actually the answer to everything". Godziszewski did iterate that he did enjoy the film and praised the monster battles for being choreographed closer to the original Toho films than how "Pacific Rim" was choreographed. David Kalat (author of "A Critical History and Filmography of Toho's Godzilla Series") felt that Edwards figured out a successful "modern American context" for the film in supporting American troops, stating, "Edwards' Godzilla (2014) takes that concept and weaponizes it: we're used to seeing Godzilla movies where the military fails because they're stupid, but seeing them fail but be heroic while failing is new. It's also something the culture needs—and it's the kind of heretical idea that's otherwise hard to dramatize in pop culture, just like the original Godzilla's anti-American stance was so potent in 1954." However, Kalat criticized the film for giving Godzilla "almost no screen-time". In October 2015, Legendary announced plans to unite Godzilla and King Kong in a film titled "Godzilla vs. Kong", set for a 2020 release date. Legendary plans to create a shared cinematic franchise "centered around Monarch" (the secret government agency which debuted in 2014's "Godzilla") and that "brings together Godzilla and Legendary’s King Kong in an ecosystem of other giant super-species, both classic and new". Prior to announcing a shared cinematic universe between Godzilla and King Kong, Legendary originally intended to produce a trilogy with Gareth Edwards attached to direct the sequels, however, Edwards left the sequel in May 2016 to work on smaller scale projects. After Edwards left the project, Michael Dougherty, who had been hired in October 2016 to write the script with Zach Shields, was announced as the director for "" in January 2017. Principal photography began in June 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia and ended in September 2017.