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You saw the title. It’s happening! It’s really, really happening. We’re actually getting another Godzilla movie from Takashi Yamazaki, the director of one of the greatest (and my all-time favorite) Godzilla movies of all time, Godzilla Minus One.
The news was revealed in an “emergency announcement” tweet from Toho, and I (and my son, a newly minted Godzilla fan) honestly couldn’t be happier. Currently we don’t know if this new film will be a direct sequel to Godzilla Minus One or something else entirely, but as of right now, my head is absolutely swimming with ideas.
So with the limited knowledge that we have of it being written, directed and having VFX from Takashi Yamazaki, here are three things that I definitely want to see (and two things that I definitely don’t want to see) from the next installment in the current Godzilla era.
Oh, and minor SPOILERS up ahead for Godzilla Minus One.
Want To See: A Continuation Of The Story And Characters From Godzilla Minus One
Okay, so right off the bat, I’ll admit that the number one thing I want to see is a direct sequel to Godzilla Minus One. Yes, I love Shin Godzilla and I adore Godzilla Minus One. However, since we’re getting the same director from Minus One, I want a direct follow-up to that story rather than another reboot of the franchise.
Now this might seem odd, but I’m thinking back to Japanese director Ishiro Honda. He left such a large imprint on Godzilla that he’s widely considered to be the father of the character. And why not? He directed the first Godzilla, as well as several other beloved films in the canon, such as King Kong vs. Godzilla, Mothra vs. Godzilla, Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster and many other legendary films. In fact, a lot of Godzilla’s best enemies come from Honda’s tenure as director.
However, do you know what Godzilla movie Honda didn’t direct? Godzilla’s second feature, Godzilla Raids Again (Also known as Gigantis, the Fire Monster), which was directed by Motoyoshi Oda.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Godzilla Raids Again, but it’s a pretty big departure from the first movie. In the film, Godzilla fights his first adversary in Anguirus. This would take on a long-standing tradition of pitting Godzilla against another kaiju, and, while I do love this, I always wondered what it would have been like if Honda had directed the second Godzilla film.
The tone completely shifted with Raids Again, and with Takashi Yamazaki directing the next Godzilla film, I think we have a real opportunity to maintain that excellent dark tone set with Godzilla Minus One.
Plus, I just love all of the characters from that movie. They are what really make Godzilla Minus One shine, and I want to know what happens next for Koichi, Noriko and all the rest. There are hints in Minus One that their story isn’t over, and I’d love to see where they would go next after the last startling conclusion.
Don’t Want To See: Another Revision Of Godzilla
This somewhat goes hand-in-hand with my last point, but I don’t want to see another revision of Godzilla. The Reiwa Era has actually been really interesting in that we’ve gotten multiple interpretations of the character.
We’ve gotten the evolving form in Shin Godzilla, the lumbering behemoth from the Netflix anime Godzilla Singular Point, and the slightly clunky version in the animated Godzilla movies. Plus, if you’re counting the Godzilla in the concurrent MonsterVerse, we’ve even gotten a nimble Godzilla who can deliver a mean suplex to King Kong.
However, I find the Godzilla in Minus One to be my absolute favorite of them since he’s simplistic in design and motives. This is a creature that grows bigger in time and actually doesn’t seem like he’s done growing. We see him “destroyed” in Minus One, but his skin is still “alive” at the end of the film, hinting that there would be a sequel of sorts.
Why fix what’s not broken? I don’t think we need to see a brand-new revision of the character when we’ve already gotten one that’s so good. That’s why I’d love to see this Godzilla brought back, and not a brand new one. Because how can you fix perfection?
Want To See: More Information On Where Godzilla Came From
One thing I really don’t like to see is origin stories for characters we already know and love. For example, even though Andrew Garfield is my favorite version of Spider-Man, I’m not in love with the two movies that he stars in. Like, did we really need to see Uncle Ben’s death again?
Anybody who knows anything about Spider-Man knows that Uncle Ben’s death is a pivotal moment in the character’s origin story. So, we definitely did not need that event retold in The Amazing Spider-Man when we had the Tobey Maguire films a few years prior. I also like that it wasn’t repeated in the MCU Spider-Man flicks.
That said, I’m kind of going to contradict myself in that I do want a Godzilla origin story in a potential Godzilla Minus One follow-up. I think Minus One eloquently introduced Godzilla without going into how he actually came to be. But if this next movie is a sequel, which I hope that it is, then I would love it if the scientists in this version actually surmised where Godzilla came from.
That’s because there’s a great scene in Minus One where the scientists theorize how to take Godzilla down, and that was one of my favorite scenes in the entire movie. So if we got something like that, but a scene where we learn how radiation from WWII helped spawn this monstrosity, I think it would be really cool. Who else is with me?
Don’t Want To See: Godzilla Fighting Another Monster
I mentioned earlier that I enjoy Godzilla Raids Again, but one problem that I have with it–and most Toho Godzilla movies, really–is that it’s so rare to just have Godzilla be the main antagonist in a Godzilla film without other kaiju being involved.
In fact, looking back at Godzilla’s history, we always get a solo Godzilla film followed by a flick where Big G encounters another kaiju. With Godzilla (1954), we got Godzilla Raids Again with Anguirus right afterward. With Godzilla 1985, we got Godzilla vs. Biollante as the subsequent film.
Sure, you could argue that Godzilla Minus One follows Shin Godzilla when it comes to the Toho films, but I would argue that Minus One is yet another reboot rather than being a follow-up to Shin Godzilla.
No, if we were to get a Godzilla movie that was a follow-up to Minus One, then this would be the first time in history that we got a direct sequel to a Toho Godzilla movie that didn’t feature another kaiju for Godzilla to face.
I would love this since, again, Godzilla Minus One is more about the human characters than Godzilla himself. So even if the next Takashi Yamazaki Godzilla movie isn’t a sequel to Minus One, it would still feel weird to me since Yamazaki seems like the kind of director who is more focused on the human drama rather than the monsters themselves.
Want To See: More Amazing (And Surprising) Cost-Effective Special Effects
Lastly, after Godzilla Minus One earned the series’ first Oscar for its special effects, I would imagine that Toho would be more willing to give Yamazaki anything he wanted when it comes to a budget.
However, as selfish as this might sound, I really hope that they continue to give him a moderate amount of money to work with, since that’s what made Godzilla Minus One so special. When it was revealed that Minus One had a paltry budget of $15 million dollars, people were utterly gobsmacked, and for good reason. Like, how? How can a movie that looks THIS good cost so little?
That said, I’m assuming monetary limitations are what allowed such a human story to be told, as Godzilla’s appearances in the film, while massively impressive, are reserved for potent moments. This allows the story to breathe and makes the Godzilla encounters especially frightening in Minus One.
So, even though it would be expected to make a BIGGER (read: more expensive) Godzilla movie after the success of Minus One, I’d actually love to see the VFX team make movie magic yet again with a limited budget. Let’s see if that’s even possible.
And that’s the list! Be sure to swing around often to see any new developments for this film.