For nearly 70 years, the Godzilla film franchise has been one of the most prolific, significant, and influential properties on the planet, one that continues to grow in popularity with each subsequent release. With several dozen films from various eras over the past half-century, audiences have seen the monster bring ruin to countless cities, take on some incredibly cool enemies, and scream into the heavens with its atomic breath. Soon enough, we’ll be seeing an even darker and more dangerous version of everyone’s favorite ancient monster powered by nuclear radiation.
Before the end of the 2023 movie schedule, audiences will be treated to Godzilla Minus One, Toho’s latest kaiju film. As we look toward the film’s late fall release, there are quite a few things we know about the movie, including its drop date, a look at its teaser, and what we can expect from the franchise in the near future. Sound the alarms because Godzilla is here…
What is The Godzilla Minus One Release Date?
There isn’t that much time to wait (or prepare for the 100 foot tall ravaging monster’s arrival) as Godzilla Minus One is slated to open in U.S. theaters on December 1st, Toho Co., Ltd. has announced. There won’t be much competition in Godzilla’s path, considering it’s the lone release that weekend. That could very well change, though.
If you find yourself spending time in Japan the previous month, you will be able to catch Godzilla Minus One when it opens on November 3rd to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the beloved sci-fi franchise (the first movie came out in 1954). Toho first announced this release date back in November 2022 when it teased the arrival of a new Godzilla movie.
The Godzilla Minus One Teaser Trailer Shows The Iconic Kaiju’s Path Of Destruction
In July 2023, a little less than five months before the radioactive plasma-breathing monster was set to make landfall in the United States (even less time before his Japanese arrival), Toho released the first teaser trailer. What the teaser lacks in length and information regarding the specifics of the film’s plot, it made up for with some truly terrifying and unnerving scenes of destruction:
The tense and harrowing teaser (it’s only 34 seconds long) features no music but instead a series of shots perfectly timed with the ground-shaking footsteps of the massive monster, whose face isn’t revealed until the final shot. We’re in for one hell of a ride if the final movie is just as frightening.
The Movie Will See The Arrival Of Godzilla In Post-WWII Japan
Over the years, the best Godzilla movies have taken place anywhere from the mid-1950s to modern times, but the upcoming Minus One will take the franchise back to an even earlier period: Post-WWII Japan. The teaser provided above features a line reading “Postwar, Japan had lost everything,” which is something Toho International president Koji Ueda addressed in a statement carried by Forbes.
Already devastated by the war (the U.S. firebombing of Tokyo and other major cities, the dropping of two atomic bombs, and years of blockades), the people of Japan will face a new terrifying and overwhelming threat. Godzilla, as Ueda put it, will bring “the country into the “minus,” a negative state below zero.
Godzilla Minus One Was Written And Directed By Takashi Yamazaki
This won’t be a continuation of the story told in 2016’s Shin Godzilla, a reboot almost no one saw in the United States, so it won’t feature the creative team of Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi directing its action. In their place, Takashi Yamazaki served as the writer, director, and visual effects supervisor for the upcoming kaiju movie, according to Variety.
In a statement picked up by SciFi Japan, Yamazaki called the new movie the “culmination of all the films” he’s made so far, before calling Minus One something that needs to be “experienced” instead of simply being “watched” in the theater.
Over the course of his career, Yamazaki has worked on movies like the Always franchise, The Great War of Archimedes, and Lupin III: The First among other releases. This won’t be his first experience with the iconic monster, as he worked on the Japanese theme park attraction, Godzilla the Ride: Giant Monsters Ultimate Battle in 2021.
Promo Images Showing The Massive And Terrifying Appearance Of Godzilla Were Released In August 2023
Though the teaser gave fans their first glance at the movie’s version of the iconic monster, it stopped short of showing off his terrifying size and appearance in full. Well, that all changed in August 2023, when Kaiju News Outlet shared images on its Twitter account of the latest incarnation of Toho’s most famous character. With massive legs, a back and tail lined with terrifying spikes, and some serious girth, this isn’t something you’d want to mess with.
The new promo images don't show the scale of the monster, but if we take what we’ve seen from the Godzilla Minus One trailer and apply it to these front-and-back pictures, we can get a basic understanding of just how destructive, and imitating, this beast will look on the big screen later this year.
This Isn’t The Only Godzilla Project In The Works
There has never been a better time to be a Godzilla fan, because there are multiple projects based on the ferocious movie monster currently in the works.
A few months after the arrival of Toho’s latest film, audiences will also get to see the continuation of Legendary’s Monsterverse with the long-awaited debut of Adam Wingard’s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which is slated for a March 15, 2024 release. The movie will feature an all-star cast including Brian Tyree Henry and Dan Stevens, and will see Godzilla and King Kong join forces to take on a new and dangerous threat.
That isn’t all, as Apple TV+ has been developing a Monsterverse streaming series called Godzilla and the Titans, which is being spearheaded by WandaVision executive producer Matt Shakman. In May 2022, it was revealed that he would also direct a pair of episodes. It hasn’t been announced when the show will be available for those with an Apple TV+ subscription, but we can expect to hear more in the coming months.
We should know more about the cast, story, and have a look at a full trailer as we get closer to Godzilla Minus One’s December 1st release date. In the meantime, take a look at our breakdown of Godzilla and other sci-fi movies that are over 90% on Rotten Tomatoes.
