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For the last twenty-plus years, I’ve kept a dirty secret: I like the 1998 Godzilla. I enjoy it for the simple reason that I was six years old when it hit theaters, my dad took me to see it, and we had a blast. Hard to argue against spending time with your pop watching a giant lizard stomp through New York City.
But I’ve been afraid to say this because, in case you weren’t aware of niche fandoms, kaiju genre purists loathe that movie. Why? Because it’s a maddeningly typical Hollywood-ified version of a Japanese icon. And I get it. Gojira, the 1954 original by Ishirō Honda, is a striking meditation about manmade annihilation—how our extinction doesn’t rest in the hands of gods but our own. Godzilla is an inelegant blockbuster where New York is attacked (pre-9/11) in a half-Jurassic Park, half-Independence Day spectacle. I bring all of that up because, for the first time in a long time, Godzilla is coming back to New York.
At CinemaCon in Las Vegas, GKIDS presented first-look previews of the upcoming Godzilla Minus Zero, a sequel to the 2023 hit Godzilla Minus One. The movie is slated to open in theaters on November 6.
On stage at CinemaCon, director Takashi Yamazaki (who won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects for Godzilla Minus One) presented his new movie after providing a brief overview of the story. He confirmed Godzilla Minus Zero will be “a direct sequel” that resumes the story of the Shikishimas in post-war Japan. “In this new film, an even deeper despair will descend upon Japan and the Shikishima family,” Yamazaki said. “When faced when overwhelming and inescapable force, how do people fight back? The journey from Minus to Zero will not be an easy one.”
But it was during the preview that took everyone at CinemaCon by surprise, per Deadline. In the preview, Godzilla shows up near the Statue of Liberty, implying that Godzilla Minus Zero will go abroad and follow the Big G stomping through mid-20th century New York City. This reveal, Deadline writes, lead to “audible gasps from the audience in the Colosseum at Caesars Palace.”
Brushing aside one hilarious scene in Godzilla: Final Wars from 2004, Godzilla hasn’t been to New York since Emmerich’s ‘98 film. It’s uncertain how much Minus Zero will actually take place in the big city, or if this is a Jason Takes Manhattan situation where Godzilla wreaks havoc there (or rather, here—I’m typing this from my desk in midtown literally right now) only in the final few minutes. Still, it’s hard not to be stoked that one of the best Godzilla movies ever made is not just getting a sequel, but that it’s bringing the terror stateside. And given the period setting, Godzilla could do cool things New Yorkers can’t today. Like watch the Dodgers play in Brooklyn.
As far as what “American representation” might be in Godzilla Minus Zero, no one except Yamazaki and his collaborators have any clue. The movie doesn’t have a full cast list yet, so it’s uncertain what foreign talent might represent New Yorkers circa 1949. For what it’s worth, Tom Cruise told Yamazaki that Minus One was “perfect” in a promo video for Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning last summer. And Nicolas Cage was so inspired by it, his new show Spider-Noir is also releasing a black and white version. Might a Cruise cameo be in the cards for Minus Zero? Turns out, people really dig thoughtful monster movies after all.