Godzilla: King of The Monsters has officially been rated by the Motion Picture Association of America. The upcoming sequel has received a PG-13 rating from the organization, which, in itself, isn't terribly surprising. It's what Gareth Edwards' 2014's Godzilla and last year's Kong: Skull Island were rated and it falls right in line with what we've come to expect from such movies. But the timing of the rating is something worth examining a bit. Before digging into that, here's the MPAA's cited reasoning for handing down the PG-13 rating,

"Rated PG-13 for sequences of monster action violence and destruction, and for some language."

That all sounds like what moviegoers are going to turn up expecting to see when Godzilla 2 finally arrives in theaters next year. And that's actually something to think about here. As of this writing, Warner Bros. has the movie slated for release on May 31, 2019, right in the heart of the summer movie season. That's a full eight months from now. Yet, director Michael Dougherty has apparently already finished his cut to the degree that the MPAA was able to officially give it a rating. What does that mean exactly?

Typically, getting a movie rated is one of the final steps in the process. The MPAA can't rate a movie until the cut that is going to be released in theaters is put together. With that in mind, it would stand to reason that Godzilla: King of the Monsters is pretty much done. Is Warner Bros. really going to just leave this thing sitting for eight months? Is it possible that they could bump up the release date? The sequel had previously been slated for a March 2019 release, but the studio moved it to May, seemingly demonstrating confidence in its ability to perform at the box office.

The first Godzilla 2 trailer was released over the summer at San Diego Comic-Con and, even with Aquaman and Shazam stealing a great deal of the spotlight, it was the King of the Monsters that seemed to ultimately be the talk of the weekend. The footage, which features Mothra, Rodan and King Ghidorah alongside Godzilla, was absolutely stunning and left fans wanting more. Perhaps the studio has looked at this as an opportunity to build off of that momentum and get this movie in theaters a bit sooner? That's possibly just wishful thinking, though, not totally out of the realm of reality.

For now, we'll just have to assume that the wait is still going to be longer than many of us would like. The cast includes Millie Bobby Brown, Vera Farmiga, Sally Hawkins, Kyle Chandler, Ken Watanabe, Charles Dance, Bradley Whitford, Thomas Middleditch and O'Shea Jackson Jr. Godzilla: King of the Monsters will be followed up by Godzilla vs. Kong, which is to be directed by Adam Wingard and will hit theaters on May 22, 2020. This news comes to us from the MPAA.