After the success of this year’s fantastic Hollywood iteration of GODZILLA, Toho studios have been inspired to return the king of the monsters back to his roots. GODZILLA managed to rake in $526 million worlwide, with $26 million of that coming straight from Japan. Despite the success, we’ll have to wait until 2018 to see GODZILLA 2, as Gareth Edwards journeys to a galaxy far, far away for a Star Wars spin-off feature before returning to the Big G.
Therefore, it seems as though Toho, the studio where Godzilla originated from, will fill that lengthy gap by returning to the franchise themselves. Aiming for a production date of next summer and a release in 2016, the latest Godzilla film from Toho will be the first since 2004’s GODZILLA: FINAL WARS. Toho are taking this so seriously they have set up the Godzilla Strategic Conference, which is joining producers, executives, and directors of the studio, into a collective in order to best bring Godzilla back to life.
In the long term, Toho are hoping to make Godzilla even more popular, and hope he will be a symbol of Japan in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. That’s what we like to see as raising the bar very, very high.
As a massive Godzilla fan, I’d have to say that this is very exciting. Godzilla can exist in both his Hollywood and Japanese incarnations, and it also means we wont have an excruciating 4 year wait for more Godzilla. Sure, we had to endure 10 years between GODZILLA: FINAL WARS and the most recent GODZILLA, but we’ve had a taste now.
Keep your eyes peeled for more Godzilla news in the near future.
Source: Variety
