SDCC 2025 Report: Toho's 'Godzilla at 70: Seven Decades of the King of the Monsters' Panel

SDCC 2025 Report: Toho's "Godzilla at 70: Seven Decades of the King of the Monsters" Panel

Photo by Gary Teetzel. TM & ©TOHO CO., LTD.

Author/Photographer: Gary Teetzel
Special Thanks to Jonah Keel

Bandai's new Movie Graphic Plus figure line. Photo courtesy of Bandai. TM & ©TOHO CO., LTD.

Godzilla fans attending San Diego Comic-Con converged upon Room 6DE Friday afternoon for the panel "Godzilla at 70: Seven Decades of the King of the Monsters", which highlighted new products being showcased at the convention and offered a glimpse of projects launching soon.

The panel was divided into three parts, the first being devoted to collectibles and consumer products. Jeff Gordon, Director of Franchise and Retail Brand Development for Bandai, spoke of their new "Movie Graphic Plus" line, which packages a monster figure with a small reproduction of the movie poster art; Godzilla figures from GODZILLA VS. BIOLLANTE and SHIN GODZILLA are currently up for preorder, with more promised soon. Furthermore, Inchibansho will be introducing a "Monsterlise" series of high quality figures depicting Godzilla, his allies and his enemies. Other highlights of Bandai's presentation were a spectacular King Ghidorah figure, the reveal of a new Destoroyah in their 6" line, and a gold Godzilla Minus One available at the convention.

ALL MONSTERS ATTACK poster by Attack Peter. Photo courtesy of Mondo. TM & ©TOHO CO., LTD.

Next, Mondo's Hector Arce, Senior Director of Creative and Product Development, and Peter Santa Maria, Senior Creative Director, spoke of the company's latest Godzilla art prints, figures and soundtracks. Enthusiastically sharing their love for the character, they showed off two new prints available at their booth, one a 24" x 36" reproduction of Herb Trimpe's cover to Marvel's GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS first issue, the other a tribute to ALL MONSTERS ATTACK (a.k.a. GODZILLA'S REVENGE) by Santa Maria, who signs his linoleum block prints under the name "Attack Peter." Other recent Godzilla prints by Tom Whalen, Tony Stella and the renowned Bob Eggleton were also showcased. Mondo also discussed their ongoing series of Godzilla figures, included sofubi-styled versions of Godzilla and Hedorah; Attack Peter's distinctive style brought to 3-dimensional life as statues and figures; and the striking Urban Aztec versions of Godzilla and King Ghidorah. More toys were promised for the future, as well as releases in their line of high-quality Godzilla soundtrack LPs.

Brian Flynn of Super7 brought the consumer products segment of the panel to a close with a discussion of the many products offered at the company's Godzilla Station pop-up store during the convention, including the Godzilla Super Cycle, a new figure inspired by Art Adams' "bloody Godzilla" Dark Horse comic cover and items from the Super Kaiju line—normally a Target exclusive, but offered for sale first at Godzilla Station.

Turning to the world of comics, writer Brian Buccellato took to the stage to discuss JUSTICE LEAGUE VS. GODZILLA VS. KONG 2, the current followup to their previous crossover success that saw the Titans of Legendary's Monsterverse clash with DC's superheroes and villains. In the sequel, Amanda Waller, appalled by the destruction caused by the Titans in the first series, works with Lex Luthor to create their own titans to defend against any future incursions from the Monsterverse. Crossing over to that universe's Hollow Earth domain, Suicide Squad members King Shark and Killer Croc are used as unwitting Guinea pigs in Waller's experiments. When the Justice League intervenes, Titan/superhero mayhem ensues, with Task Force X and Leland Shaw also caught up in the action. Buccellato shared artwork from the upcoming third issue depicting Superman and Lex Luthor coming across Skar King's tribe of giant apes, and the Man of Steel confronting Godzilla.

Interior pages from IDW's new GODZILLA #1. Photo courtesy of IDW Publishing. ©TOHO CO., LTD.

Jake Williams, editor, and Tim Seeley, writer, discussed IDW's new line of interconnected comics set in the "Kai-Sei era", the first time a unique era has been created exclusively for Godzilla comics. The premise: 70 years ago, Godzilla first appeared, devastating civilization and unleashing Kai-sei energy, causing other kaiju to appear and some humans to mutate and gain superpowers. The first issue of the flagship comic in the line, simply titled GODZILLA, was released this past week on July 23, and IDW is offering a convention-exclusive edition with a cover by Attack Peter at San Diego Comic-Con. Coming soon are STARSHIP GODZILLA, in which Mechagodzilla is turned into a spaceship that will confront alien species from the Toho films, and GODZILLA: ESCAPE THE DEADZONE, in which a half-human, half-kaiju hybrid must navigate the post-apocalyptic landscape of the Pacific Northwest. Also discussed was IDWs new crossover event featuring Godzilla and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which had been announced earlier at the convention.

The final segment of the panel focused on television and movies. Legendary and Apple TV's MONARCH: LEGACY OF MONSTERS was represented by VFX supervisor Sean Konrad. With details of Season Two still a closely guarded secret, Konrad devoted his time to discussing the visualization of Season One's climactic battle between Godzilla and the Ion Dragon. When designing the Ion Dragon, the effects team looked at Titans that had appeared in Monsterverse comics, but believed that the appearance of the creature needed to be grounded in the natural word. Various bird species were looked at, but none were sufficiently threatening. The final inspiration came from marine animals, with the head and mouth made to resemble an anglerfish, and the wings modeled after those of a flying fish.

Another moment from the season finale inspired what Konrad declared the greatest studio note he had ever received. The filmmakers wanted to convey the idea that Godzilla was being drawn to a radioactive device. They considered a point of view shot from Godzilla's perspective—but just how would that look? They turned to Toho for input. In response, Toho wrote that the idea of showing Godzilla's point of view had been considered many times over the years, but after much consideration they had reached the conclusion that "Godzilla's point of view is unknowable."

Godzilla, of course, originated on the big screen, so it was fitting that the panel ended with a discussion of the 10^th anniversary theatrical re-release of SHIN GODZILLA this August 14. The trailer for the newly remastered-in-4K movie was shown, and then co-director Shinji Higuchi was brought out to an enthusiastic reception from the fans. Speaking through a translator with SciFi Japan at a press event prior to the panel, Higuchi reminisced about the unusual circumstances leading to the film and the decision to hire himself and Hideaki Anno to co-direct: “There was less time than you can imagine to produce this film. Probably moreso than any other Godzilla. And part of that reason is because SHIN GODZILLA came out at a time where Legendary was kind of spearheading a lot of the Godzilla films, but one of their films got delayed, and there happened to be this void in the Godzilla release timeline and there was this big chance—it was almost like a pocket of air—when we were told 'Hey, if you can make a Godzilla film this quick, than we can theatrically release it in Japan.' So when that happened, the reason why we have two co-directors is because there was so little time. We had two people to speed up the creative process but still deliver something of high quality.”

Reflecting on the positive worldwide reaction to the film ten years later, Higuchi said "I was surprised. I think moreso than we expected, the moviegoing audiences really picked up and understood the intent and nuance we wanted to weave into the film. SHIN GODZILLA is a very different kind of Godzilla movie than its predecessors, so I was bracing for the moviegoing audiences to say 'Aw, this isn’t Godzilla.' But they were surprisingly very receptive to what we were trying to do.”

The panel concluded with a surprise appearance by rapper/songwriter/actor O'Shea Jackson Jr. ("Jackson Barnes" in Legendary's GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS) who helped give away prizes to audience members by asking trivia questions.

Kaiju fans at Comic-Con were treated to another Godzilla panel on Saturday, as Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski held a discussion of their new book GODZILLA: THE FIRST 70 YEARS and signed copies afterward.

Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski were on hand to promote their new book, GODZILLA: THE FIRST 70 YEARS. Photo by Gary Teetzel. TM & ©TOHO CO., LTD.

San Diego Comic-Con comes to a close July 27, after which fans will have the long wait until next years convention, which will run July 23 through the 26.