Kong: Skull Island - 25 Easter Eggs & References You Must See

7. Evangelion, Pokemon & Spirited Away

The director says he wanted his cast to watch Evangelion, but he decided making Tom Hiddleston watch 12 hours of a dead anime wasn't fair. It still makes its presence felt though, as the series' Angel monsters clearly offer some of the genetic material to Vogt-Roberts' evil Skull Crawlers.

Their leggy, alien design combines the two-armed pit lizard from the 1933 King Kong, and a couple of other sources:

"That creature, beyond being a reference to a creature from the 1933 film, is also this crazy fusion of all of the influences throughout my life – like the first angel from Evangelion, and No-Face from Spirited Away, and Cubone from Pokémon."

You can definitely see No-Face's reference in the Skull Crawlers' faces...