Godzilla isn't just King of the Monsters; he's King of the Box Office. Though early estimates suspected this resurrected movie monster franchise would make a neat $70 mil, Godzilla devastated its competition to pull in an astounding $93 million in the U.S. Add that to the overseas totals so far, and Warner Bros. has already earned $196 million on a $160 production. With wild praise from critics, and raucous word of mouth from audiences, Godzilla is setting itself up to be the movie to beat this summer. And so understandably, Warner Bros. has already announced plans for a sequel.
A couple of weeks ago, before critics were allowed to gush or audiences had gotten more than mere glimpses of this rebooted beast, I had a chance to sit down with Godzilla star Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Amid talk of the production and its allusions to Jaws, I asked him what he'd like to see if Godzilla 2 got greenlit.
Cinema Blend: So, let’s say Legendary green lights a sequel immediately. What is something you’d like to see in the sequel, for your character or monster-wise?Aaron Taylor-Johnson: I don’t really know. I don’t follow all the Godzilla (movies). I know that Mothra is like your supposed sequel, but I don’t know really…I’ll come to that when I come to that. It would be really interesting to see it take place somewhere else, like there’s some disaster somewhere else in the world. And if I’m involved then, you know, I’m in the military, so there is a chance of being called out somewhere in the Middle East or something. That could be kind of interesting, I suppose.Like in Jaws, I feel like there’s a sense of fate to the film and it seems like the Brodys are kind of tied to Godzilla in this film, especially your character.Yeah, I guess so, sort of a happy coincidence in a way, but I don’t know. I mean, I don’t know where they’ll go with it, to be honest. If anything, you know, it would be sort of cooler if it was ten years down the line and my son is somehow involved, you know what I mean. You never really know.That would follow a Jaws plot line too.Yeah?Jaws 3.(With a grin.) Keep them happy.
At this time Warner Bros. is releasing no details or promises on where the next Godzilla movie might go, or much less which monsters might resurface. Notably, there was a Mothra Easter Egg in the film (did you catch it?) when the Fords returned to their abandoned home. It was a label on a petrified terrarium with a long dead moth inside. But let's return to Taylor-Johnson's pitch.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson makes a solid point that the way Godzilla sets up the MUTOs, the next monster attack really could happen anywhere. But I was surprised to hear he was so quick to downplay Ford Brody's role in the series, passing the torch to the character's five-year-old son. He hadn't realized it when he said it, but that would follow in the footsteps of Jaws 3, which center's on Police Chief Martin Brody's son Michael (Brody... again!), all grown up and fighting a Great White who has invaded a SeaWorld underwater park.
While some at Cinema Blend are against the idea of a Godzilla sequel, I had so much fun with this film that I am giddy over more, more, more. Will Warner Bros. and Legendary bring screenwriter Max Borenstein back on board to script it? Will Gareth Edwards be game to return to helm? Will the Brody family continue to be the central human face of the films, or will producers take note that much of the criticism of Godzilla was focused on the Fords, and look elsewhere for Godzilla 2's human heroes? We'll give you details on all of the above as they develop.
Godzilla is now in theaters. For more on my interview with Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ken Watanabe (plus Watanabe doing his best Godzilla roar), click here.
