New Godzilla film announced! Takashi Yamazaki returns!

[Kailem]

Breaking news!! Toho has just announced that a new Godzilla film has been greenlit, with Takashi Yamazaki returning to write, direct and oversee VFX!!!

https://x.com/Godzilla_Toho/status/1852356885871251798
https://x.com/Godzilla_Toho/status/1852361781873902021

I was hoping they'd get him back after he expressed interest in doing more Godzilla during Minus One's press tour, but I feared that with the way he was being courted by Lucasfilm he might have been lured away to make a Star Wars movie before that happened. But no, more Godzilla it is; and hopefully this time we won't have to wait the better part of a decade to see it!!

The only real question now is, is this going to be a follow-up to Minus One, or something completely new and unrelated?

[DannyBeane]

I'm super psyched for this. I hope it's a sequel because I'm getting kinda tired of one off Japanese Godzilla films.

[Kailem]

I've got to imagine it will be. Yamazaki has spoken a few times about wanting to do a sequel and what he might potentially like to do with it (Noriko's mark, Godzilla vs another monster), and with him being the returning writer/director *and* with how well Minus One has done globally, it makes the most sense that this would be a sequel.

Though to be honest I'd be cool with him doing a totally different film too, so it's a win-win as far as I'm concerned!

[Dai]

A nine-second video that made my day. Great news.

We know that the next Monsterverse movie is slated for 2027, so now the question is whether this new Toho movie is targetting 2025 or 2026.

[Kailem]

I'd hope that Toho would have requested that contractual stipulation stating they couldn't make their own Godzilla movies while Legendary was in production of theirs be dropped when Legendary re-upped with them after Godzilla vs Kong, but part of me is definitely wondering if they're trying to get ahead of the next Monsterverse movie by announcing this so early (by modern Toho Godzilla standards).

Either way 2026 is going to be the earliest we see this. Even though bringing back Yamazaki will likely ensure they can get moving on this quicker than if they went with a totally new creative team I can't imagine them doing a full-on return to the old ways of churning out a film in only a year.

[Benjamin Haines]

Yes! This was the best news to read at work on a Friday morning!

I'd be fine with another reboot but I really hope this is a sequel to Minus One. I'm also not sure that another reboot would be as well-received by general audiences internationally as a sequel. I imagine that Takashi Yamazaki and everyone at Toho are feeling pressured to achieve the same level of international success as Minus One, even though it was both improbable and unprecedented.

Toho shot Minus One from March to June of 2022 and released it in November 2023, while Legendary shot GxK from July to November of 2022 and released it in March 2024. Even though those two movies were never technically in production at the same time, they were both filmed in 2022 and they were both in post-production through most of 2023, so I'm sure that Toho did ensure that looser overlap when Legendary renewed their license. Legendary is already on track to follow a similar timetable three years later with the next Monsterverse flick set for March 2027, so I can totally see Toho aiming to release Yamazaki's next Godzilla movie in November 2026. I'm guessing that "production greenlit" means that Yamazaki has finished at least a first draft of the script by now, so if they can be ready to start shooting four months from now in March 2025, they can have just as much time to finish the movie for a November 2026 release as they had for Minus One without any comparative rushing.

[lhb412]

Wow! Minus One was an unprecedented international hit, so it's an obvious move, but we've spent roughly a decade in a zone where every Toho project has been a one-off, so this feels monumental! Can't wait to look forward to new Toho Godzilla film all over again!

[Benjamin Haines]

^ At this point, things are pretty much right back to how they were last year in terms of upcoming Godzilla productions. We once again have a new live-action Toho movie, a new Legendary MonsterVerse movie and a new season of Monarch to look forward to, with another live-action Toho short right around the corner!

It'll probably be 2025 for the second season of Monarch and 2026 for the next Toho movie, with the next Legendary movie already confirmed for 2027. Godzilla's post-hiatus revival that began in 2014 isn't close to being over!

I'm still hoping that Toho has another animated Godzilla film or TV series in the works, and not just another Gemstone animated short (which doesn't seem to be happening this year). The Gemstone team should get a crack at a fully-animated feature film! Speaking of which, I'd love to see Legendary collaborate with Warner Bros. Animation and DC to produce an animated film adaptation of Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong. It seems crazy but there was a comic book miniseries crossover featuring Batman and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 2015-2016 that got adapted into an animated film in 2019, so it really could happen.

[Kailem]

A little late to post this, but alas it seems like we're going to have to wait longer than we might have hoped before this starts production, as Yamazaki has signed a deal with Sony to make "Grandgear" his next film, and his first in English:

https://x.com/DiscussingFilm/status/1857473930732146939

In which case I'd say there's a decent chance we won't be getting Toho's next Godzilla film until *after* Legendary's.

[Benjamin Haines]

^ I think Yamazaki will make the Minus One sequel before Grandgear. That tweet cites Deadline, and here's Deadline's article: https://deadline.com/2024/11/godzilla-minus-one-takashi-yamazaki-next-project-grandgear-bad-robot-1236177417/

That article doesn't specify that Grandgear will be the next movie that Yamazaki directs. The last paragraph even confirms that he's already in pre-production on the Minus One sequel, implying that will be next. I think it's still on course to start shooting in spring of next year and release in November 2026.

[lhb412]

Everyone and their brother has pitched their Minus One sequel so here's mine:

A regenerated Godzilla is skulking around East Asia circa the Korean War. To find a cure for Godzilla radiation disease (that's affecting many survivors) they need fresh Godzilla cell samples, so an expedition is sent from Japan to hunt Godzilla. It's a jungle adventure movie! .... Also, another monster shows up?

This sorta assumes we're jumping into the '50s and exploring subsequent genre conventions. Minus One felt like the OG Godzilla plus postwar melodrama, I think this one should feel like a late '50s/early '60s Toho genre film (plus melodrama, I suppose. Yamazaki is good at that.)

[Benjamin Haines]

^ That would be cool! Based on the official synopsis of next year's Jurassic World: Rebirth, though, Gareth Edwards is about to beat Takashi Yamazaki to the punch on that premise!

Speaking of sagas spanning different decades in which Godzilla's solo debut is followed by a jungle adventure featuring another monster during a historical war, that also reminds me of IDW's comic book miniseries Godzilla: The Half-Century War. Have you read that one? The first issue is Godzilla attacking Tokyo in 1954 and then the second issue takes place during the Vietnam War in 1967 with Godzilla battling Anguirus.


Yamazaki attended New York Comic-Con last month and, according to the Kaiju United report, his panel concluded with a short audience Q&A. Although this was before he announced that he would direct Toho's next Godzilla film, one of his answers seemed to reveal where his mind is at:

https://kaijuunited.com/2024/10/20/takashi-yamazaki-attends-godzilla-70th-anniversary-panel-at-new-york-comic-con/

Q: “If you can remake or see any previous Godzilla movie be remade, which would it be and why?”

Yamazaki: “Godzilla vs. Hedorah. I think that for its time, Hedorah was a very cutting-edge kaiju, and thinking about the type of visual expression we can do with technology and how far it’s come today – I’m imagining how it would move, and I think that would be a really cool remake.”


I do think that this sequel will take on the horrors of radioactive fallout in the same way that Minus One examined the ramifications of war. If Yamazaki does end up utilizing Hedorah, I think it would be in that context rather than as a smog monster born from pollution.

The ending of Minus One hinted at Noriko having some kind of infection or lingering effect from surviving her encounter with Godzilla, with that black mark on her neck that was visibly spreading. Whether or not she and Shikishima reappear in the sequel, I think we'll see Japan dealing with the fallout of Godzilla's attack, as the survivors find their bodies being slowly overtaken by those skin disfigurements that spread and grow and gradually morph each of them into a Hedorah. I'm picturing a visual effect like in the Singular Point anime when the swarm of Kumongas are able to regenerate their missing appendages with bodily growths that resemble Hedorah, although I think it would be more like how the people in Matango slowly transform into mushrooms.

I suppose that premise could lead to all of the transformed Hedorah people merging into one giant monster for a big showdown with Godzilla but I'm kind of not expecting Yamazaki to make this a kaiju slugfest at all. Any sort of "Godzilla vs." scenario would invariably compel viewers to root for Godzilla, and I don't see this sequel deviating from Minus One's depiction of Godzilla as a terrifying nightmare of a monster. Whether Hedorah or any other kaiju appears in this sequel, I think they'll be depicted as an extension of Godzilla's horror, not as a designated opponent and certainly not as the greater of two evils.

[Kailem]

I could *definitely* see him reworking Hedorah like that to be a living manifestation of radiation sickness if he were to include him in a sequel. It'd be a cool new spin on him while still very much being in-keeping with his roots as a creature of pollution and disease.

"^ I think Yamazaki will make the Minus One sequel before Grandgear. That tweet cites Deadline, and here's Deadline's article: https://deadline.com/2024/11/godzilla-minus-one-takashi-yamazaki-next-project-grandgear-bad-robot-1236177417/

That article doesn't specify that Grandgear will be the next movie that Yamazaki directs. The last paragraph even confirms that he's already in pre-production on the Minus One sequel, implying that will be next. I think it's still on course to start shooting in spring of next year and release in November 2026."

I hope that's the case, as there was another post I saw which I couldn't find when I went back and looked which said it would be his next project. But fingers crossed we don't have to wait *that* long to see his next Godzilla movie! After all, there's got to be a middle ground between "releasing a new movie every year like clockwork" and "having to wait the better part of a decade!"