With a purposeful grimace and a terrible sound, Godzilla will be stomping back into theaters sooner than later. Following a report from Bloomberg Japan (originally posted in Japanese), as part of a $800 million-dollar plan to promote and increase its international reach, Toho has announced that a direct sequel to 2023's Godzilla Minus One is in the works. It was previously reported in November 2024 that Toho had greenlit a new Godzilla movie to follow up on Minus One, but not that would be a direct sequel.
That initial announcement of a Minus One follow-up also included the information that director Takashi Yamazaki would be returning. Although we now know that Yamazaki's new movie will be a direct sequel, no further plot details or an expected release date have been announced. However, it's possible to make an educated guess about the date. We know that the deal in place between Toho and Legendary over Legendary's use the Godzilla IP for the MonsterVerse movies prevents Legendary from releasing a Godzilla movie in the same year as Toho. Since the sequel to Godzlla x Kong is currently slated for 2027, a 2026 release date for the Minus One sequel seems likely.
Minus One was a major milestone and a huge success for the Godzilla franchise
Released to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the original Godzilla — although actually a year early due to Godzilla x Kong's 2024 release preventing Toho from releasing their own movie the same year — Godzilla Minus One almost instantly became the most successful movie in the entire franchise. In addition to finding success at the box office both in Japan and around the world, it is currently the highest-rated movie in the franchise with critics on Rotten Tomatoes — with a better critic rating than both 2016's well-received Shin Godzilla (written and directed by Neon Genesis Evangelion's Hideaki Anno) and even the very first 1954 Godzilla itself. Notably, Minus One was the first movie in the franchise's 70-year history to win an Oscar, a well-deserved win for Best Visual Effects at the 96th Academy Awards.
Fittingly for a movie meant to commemorate such a major milestone, Minus One shares a lot in common with the original Godzilla, not to be point of being a direct remake, but certainly revisiting a lot of the themes that made the original Godzilla such a classic. The scene in Minus One where Godzilla grabs a commuter train in his mouth is a homage to a theatrical poster for the original Godzilla.
In particular, the state of post-War Japan and how the population dealt with Japan's defeat in World War II are major pillars of the storyline. The title "Minus One" refers to the fact that post-War Japan has been reduced to basically nothing and the sudden emergence of Godzilla makes things somehow even worse, essentially creating a situation that's even worse than rock bottom.
Netflix's Tudum website provides the following summary of the movie:
"Godzilla Minus One kicks off at the tail end of World War II, as kamikaze pilot Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) abandons his mission and instead lands on an island base. That night, a massive reptilian creature, quickly dubbed “Godzilla,” demolishes the base and kills nearly every other soldier, leaving Shikishima to return to Tokyo nursing a bad case of survivor’s guilt. After learning that his family was killed in the bombing of the city, he builds a makeshift family with two other orphans of the assault, Noriko Ōishi (Minami Hamabe) and Akiko (Sae Nagatani). Shikishima then takes a job on a minesweeper, where he encounters a newly mutated Godzilla — heading straight for Japan."
Godzilla Minus One, along with the specially decolorized version of the film Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color, released in greyscale to evoke the style of the original Godzilla from 1954, are streaming on Netflix.
The Bam Smack Pow team will be keeping an eye on the production of the Godzilla Minus One sequel, and we'll be here to update you when the major details, including the new movie's storyline and release date, become available.