Ilene Andrews in the Monsterverse: Who She Is and Who Plays Her

Dr. Ilene Andrews is a scientist working with Monarch, the organization that studies the giant creatures called Titans, and she is played by Rebecca Hall. She first appears in Godzilla vs. Kong, directed by Adam Wingard in 2021, where she is billed second behind Alexander Skarsgård. She returns in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, also directed by Adam Wingard, in 2024, where Hall moves to the top of the billing.

The name can cause a little confusion, because Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) credits Zhang Ziyi as Dr. Ilene Chen / Dr. Ling. That is a separate character played by a different actor, and Ilene Andrews does not appear in that film.

In Godzilla vs. Kong she works alongside Nathan Lind (Alexander Skarsgård) and Jia (Kaylee Hottle). In The New Empire she travels with Jia, the podcaster Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry) and the Titan veterinarian Trapper (Dan Stevens). She serves as the scientific voice of Monarch in both films.

Ilene Andrews goes from watching over Kong on Skull Island in Godzilla vs. Kong to leading the search for the source of a mysterious signal in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. In the first film, Kong lives under Monarch's watch inside a large dome on Skull Island, and Jia, a deaf orphan who uses sign language, has a close bond with him. When Apex Cybernetics boss Walter Simmons recruits Nathan Lind to look for a power source in the Hollow Earth, Monarch ships Kong toward an entrance in Antarctica. Ilene Andrews, Lind, Jia and an Apex team follow him inside in flying vehicles.

Inside the Hollow Earth, Ilene Andrews and the rest of the group find a glowing axe made from a Godzilla dorsal plate, and Kong takes it. The film ends with Mechagodzilla destroyed and Simmons dead, and Monarch building an observation post in the Hollow Earth, where Kong is now the ruler.

In The New Empire, some years after the Mechagodzilla fight, a Monarch outpost in the Hollow Earth picks up a strange signal that also affects Jia, the last known member of the Iwi tribe. Ilene Andrews, Jia, Bernie Hayes and Trapper go to find its source. That journey leads to a hidden Iwi community, the tyrannical Skar King and the ice breathing Titan Shimo, and the film closes with Jia choosing to stay with the Iwi.

Ilene Andrews' closest ally is Jia, played by Kaylee Hottle in both films. The two travel together in each story.

Her second tie is to Bernie Hayes, played by Brian Tyree Henry. Bernie is introduced in Godzilla vs. Kong as one of the people looking into Apex alongside Madison Russell and Josh Valentine, and he joins the New Empire expedition as the podcaster. Bernie Hayes and Ilene Andrews travel together in The New Empire.

Her professional partners shift between films. In Godzilla vs. Kong she is paired with Nathan Lind (Alexander Skarsgård), who persuades Monarch to move Kong. In The New Empire, Trapper, played by Dan Stevens, joins the group and later gives Kong a prototype glove that restores his strength.

Then there is Kong himself. Ilene Andrews works for the organization that keeps him in the Skull Island dome and later moves him, and she is connected to Kong through Monarch and Jia, not through a direct scene. Monarch is the thread that ties all of these people together, and you can read more on the Monarch page.

Ilene Andrews does not die in either Godzilla vs. Kong or Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, and her final status is not recorded. In Godzilla vs. Kong, the survivors regroup after Mechagodzilla is destroyed and Monarch sets up its observation post in the Hollow Earth, and nothing in the plot marks her as lost.

The New Empire ends with Jia staying with the Iwi and Kong returning to the Hollow Earth as leader of his tribe, but its plot gives Ilene Andrews no final scene, so her status stays unrecorded.

As for a return, the next film is Godzilla x Kong: Supernova, which Legendary lists for a US release on March 26, 2027, directed by Grant Sputore and written by Dave Callaham. No cast for it has been confirmed, so Hall's involvement is not confirmed either. For the wider roster of actors behind the series, see the Monsterverse cast and crew.

Ilene Andrews' best moment is following Kong into the Hollow Earth in Godzilla vs. Kong. In my opinion, it works as a creature design moment as much as a character one, because the group travels in flying vehicles through a world with its own rules, and Andrews gives the audience a scientist's eye on it.

My second pick is the way she stays beside Jia in The New Empire when the signal starts to affect her. The group exists to answer a distress call that only Jia seems to feel, so Andrews carries much of that first act, in the way a good navigator carries a long road trip.

My third pick is the moment in the Hollow Earth when the group finds the glowing axe made from a Godzilla dorsal plate and Kong takes it. Andrews is part of that group, and the scene sets up the weapon that pays off against Mechagodzilla. She has no solo set piece in either film, so I rank her as a strong supporting presence rather than a lead.