Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is the 38th film in the Godzilla franchise and the 13th in the King Kong franchise.

Throughout the years, the monsters have become some of the biggest stars in Hollywood — both literally and figuratively.

Dan Stevens, who joins Rebecca Hall and Brian Tyree Henry as leads in the film, confirmed the monsters’ star power at the Los Angeles premiere on Monday.

Stevens joked that he approached the CGI creatures “much like standing opposite any great movie star, really. There’s a little bit of trepidation, there’s some nerves — are they going to be mean? Do they live up to their reputation?”

He reassured, though, that “they were both lovely. Kong and I developed a pretty special bond, got pretty intimate with Kong in certain scenes, and there’s a lot of trust involved.”

Henry took a similarly lighthearted tactic, saying he prepared to work with two giant monsters by doing “neck exercises as much as you can because more than likely you’re going to be craning your neck [up] for about 12 hours a day,” while also trying “not to get too jealous of all the special treatment that they get that you don’t get.”

The Bullet Train actor continued, “they’re epic, they’ve been around forever and everybody loves them — and not you as much as they love them — so you just have to be humble, I think is the best way. They’re such divas, Jesus Christ, but it was a fun time, it really was.”

The movie serves as a sequel to 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong and sees the two characters team up to face a colossal threat hidden deep within the planet. It is the fifth film in Legendary and Warner Bros.’ MonsterVerse and comes on the heels of the Oscar-winning Godzilla Minus One, as Stevens notes, “Godzilla’s having a good year.”

Director Adam Wingard said that he met with Minus One director Takashi Yamazaki towards the end of his film’s post-production and discovered that “we both based our take on Godzilla’s mannerisms on our cats — I have a cat named Mischief, and she’s a real inspiration to me. So it’s kind of funny that for whatever reason these little feline friends have become the big inspiration for Godzilla directors.”

Wingard said he was also inspired by a shot in Minus One‘s trailer to add a scene where the monster crushes the pavement and pushes the ground up (“I thought, ‘Oh my god, that’s what our shot is missing’”) and spoke about the collaboration with Toho, the Japanese company famous for creating Godzilla.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire hits theaters on Friday, March 29.