Toho has announced the release date for a new live action godzilla movie, and it’s shockingly fast. The company, which has been involved in the franchise from the very beginning, godzilla film in 1954, 29 live-action Japanese films have contributed to the series so far. Fans largely divide these films into four eras, the Shōwa era (1954’s) godzilla up to and including 1975 Terror of Mechagodzilla), the US era (1984) The Return of Godzilla up to and including 1995 Godzilla vs. Destoroyah), the millennium era (1999) Godzilla 2000: Millennium up to and including 2004 Godzilla: Final Wars), and the Reiwa era (2016 Shin Godzilla up to the present day).
Recently, the Japanese branch of godzilla movies has something of a backseat to the big-budget blockbuster MonsterVerse franchise. The MonsterVerse, including 2014’s godzilla, Kong: Skull Islandand Godzilla vs. Kongexpands with a GvK sequel and an upcoming MonsterVerse television series, so it’s taken up a lot of the iconic Kaiju’s airtime. The only live action godzilla Toho has produced 2016’s in that time Shin Godzillaa well-regarded film that never got a sequel, although it was followed by a trilogy of less-rated Japanese animated films between 2017 and 2018.
toho officially announced that they will be releasing a brand new Godzilla movie. The project, which will be the 30th live-action Japanese Godzilla film from the studio, is slated to release on November 3, 2023, the 68th anniversary of the original film’s debut. The official Japanese godzilla account additionally announced that the film will be directed by Takashi Yamazaki, whose career includes work on anime films including: Dragon Quest: your story and Lupine III: the first.
Will the new Godzilla be in continuity with previous Godzilla movies?
The new Godzilla movie is currently untitled, so there’s no indication of what direction they want the plot to take. However, there are several avenues they can take for continuity. Many Japanese godzilla sue take the Halloween 2018 approach, ignoring every movie in the franchise except the first. However, given the popularity of Shin Godzillait’s entirely possible that the new film would follow up directly on that, possibly restructure the post-Fukushima political satire around a metaphor for Japan’s response to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Perhaps the bigger question is whether the new godzilla has any relationship with the MonsterVerse. This seems unlikely given that the Japanese films are typically set in their own separate continuity of American Godzilla properties, even though Toho is involved with the American franchise. At the very least, it’s possible they somehow reference the MonsterVerse, in the same way that they refer to the titular creature from the 1998 American godzilla in Godzilla: Final Wars.
Source: toho
