In 2017 interviews, director Jordan Vogt-Roberts cited Bong Joon-ho's The Host (2006) as the template for the Skullcrawlers—creatures designed not as monsters but as displaced inhabitants. Vogt-Roberts studied Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke for how to treat the island's fauna with spiritual reverence, the collision between nature and human conquest. The result is a blockbuster that breathes like an ecology film.
Every time I watch 'Akira', there's always something new I appreciate about it, in terms of animation, design, scale or narrative. A lot of those anime films just have a scope that I think sometimes live-action cinema is afraid to lean into.
— Jordan Vogt-Roberts · Empire Online: The 10 Movies Jordan Vogt-Roberts Says You Need To Watch (also referencing Collider interview)
Films That Influenced Kong: Skull Island
