Jia Monsterverse: Who She Is and Who Plays Her

Jia is a deaf Iwi orphan who uses sign language and shares a close bond with Kong, and she is played by Kaylee Hottle. She first appears in Godzilla vs. Kong (2021), directed by Adam Wingard, where Kong lives under Monarch's watch inside a large dome on Skull Island. Hottle returns in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024), also directed by Wingard, and is billed third in the first film and fourth in the second.

The credits list her simply as Jia, so Cinvibe uses the credited name. She is not a Titan or a creature, so there is no motion capture or voice credit to track: Hottle appears on screen in the role. Ilene Andrews, the Monarch scientist played by Rebecca Hall, is the companion who travels with her in both films, and we cover that under relationships below.

Godzilla vs. Kong runs 114 minutes and The New Empire runs 115, and Jia is part of the human story in both. In the first film she is the person who understands Kong best. In the second, the setup describes her as the last known member of the Iwi tribe, and a mysterious signal that affects her sends the plot toward a hidden Iwi community.

The Iwi first appear in kong skull island, meaning Kong: Skull Island (2017), directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts, where Captain James Conrad's group meets the native Iwi. That film is the best background to watch before you meet her.

Jia's arc moves from a child sheltered inside a Monarch dome to the one person who can reach a Titan the humans cannot, and then to a young woman who picks where she belongs. In godzilla vs kong, she talks with Kong in sign language, and that bond is what the film leans on when Monarch decides to move him. The destination is an entrance in Antarctica, and Jia goes down into the Hollow Earth in flying vehicles alongside Nathan Lind, Ilene Andrews and an Apex Cybernetics team. Down there the group finds a glowing axe made from a Godzilla dorsal plate, and Kong takes it.

In that first film Jia is not in the Hong Kong storyline, where Madison Russell, Josh Valentine and Bernie Hayes investigate Apex. Her part is the journey below and the link with Kong.

In godzilla x kong the new empire, Kong is alone in Hollow Earth looking for others of his kind. Monarch picks up a signal that Jia seems to feel, and it proves to be a distress call from the Iwi, who live beneath portals leading to the surface. She travels to the source with Ilene, Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry), the podcaster, and Trapper (Dan Stevens), the Titan veterinarian.

At the hidden Iwi community, Jia wakes Mothra, the Titan the Iwi worship. Godzilla, who has been absorbing radiation, briefly fights Kong until Mothra calms him, and the three Titans then travel to Hollow Earth to confront the forces of the Skar King. When the fighting ends, Jia decides to stay with the Iwi instead of leaving with Monarch, and Mothra restores the barrier that protects the tribe. The choice answers the first film, where she was a child kept under Monarch's care: by the end of the second she is deciding for herself.

Jia's most important relationship is with kong monsterverse, and sign language is the language they share. In Godzilla vs. Kong the film establishes that bond before it sends anyone into the Hollow Earth, which is why Monarch has a reason to bring her along.

Her closest human companion is ilene andrews monsterverse, the Monarch scientist played by Rebecca Hall, in both films. The two travel together on the Hollow Earth trip of Godzilla vs. Kong and again in The New Empire, where Ilene, Jia, Bernie and Trapper go to find the source of the signal. Hall is billed first in The New Empire, and Hottle fourth.

In The New Empire she is also joined by bernie hayes monsterverse and by Trapper. Her bond with the Iwi runs deeper than any of these, since the Iwi Queen (Fala Chen) and the tribe are her own people. Jia awakens mothra monsterverse, the Titan the Iwi worship, so her tie to the tribe also gives the film its third Titan in the final battle.

As for godzilla monsterverse, Jia has no scene with Godzilla; her effect on him comes through Mothra, who calms Godzilla after Jia wakes her.

Jia is still alive after both of her films, and her story ends with her living among the Iwi. She makes it through the Hollow Earth journey in Godzilla vs. Kong, and she is safe when the Skar King is frozen by Shimo and then shattered by Kong in The New Empire.

Her final choice is a quiet one: Jia decides to stay with the Iwi, and Mothra restores the barrier that protects them. The Titans around her also find their places. Godzilla melts the ice with his atomic breath and goes back to rest in the Colosseum in Rome, and Kong returns to Hollow Earth with Shimo and Suko to take his place as leader of his tribe. Among the main characters, Jia is the one who ends up with a home of her own.

Looking ahead, Godzilla x Kong: Supernova is listed for March 26, 2027. It is in post-production, directed by Grant Sputore, written by Dave Callaham and distributed by Warner Bros. Whether Jia appears in it is unconfirmed. Details live on the godzilla x kong supernova page.

Jia's best moments are her sign language scene with Kong in Godzilla vs. Kong, the Hollow Earth descent, and her awakening of Mothra in The New Empire. Here is how I would rank them, and this is my opinion.

1. The conversation with Kong in Godzilla vs. Kong. A giant ape in a dome talking with a child sets the rules of his character faster than any roar, and the film is better for spending time there before the Hong Kong brawl. Compared with Kong: Skull Island, where Kong is mostly a force that humans react to, this is the first time the series gives him someone to talk to.

1. The awakening of Mothra in The New Empire. It is the smartest thing the series does with her, because it turns a companion into the person who flips the whole fight: Mothra calms Godzilla, and the three Titans can then go after the Skar King together.

1. The Hollow Earth descent, where she travels beside Ilene Andrews and Nathan Lind as the group follows Kong. It is a good use of scale, because the humans are tiny next to the world around them.

1. Her decision to stay with the Iwi, a small, human ending to a very loud film. It ranks last only because it is quiet, and the film gives her little time in the final battle itself.