Toho Lays Out New Ground Rules For Future Godzilla Movies

Above, the 1954 Godzilla. Photo by Toho Co., Ltd.

Toho Co., Ltd., the parent company of Godzilla and related characters, enjoyed success this past year with their Godzilla Minus One and Legendary/Warner Bros. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. The success of these films guarantee that future Godzilla movies are ensured. 

This has prompted Toho to lay out some ground rules on future films.

TVovermind posted an article on these ground rules.

They start it with:

Toho’s beloved kaiju Godzilla has always been a cultural icon, both within Japan and internationally. However, recent revelations show the iconic beast might undergo significant changes in its future cinematic portrayals. According to industry sources, Toho has outlined new rules for Godzilla’s character that aim to reshape how the colossal figure is seen on screen.

"I really wanted to make sure that they were intertwined in a balanced way so that the human drama and whatever’s going on with Godzilla had the right balance."

Director Takashi Yamazaki emphasized the need for harmony between human drama and Godzilla’s storyline in ‘Godzilla Minus One’. This approach may have set a new tone.

To read what the ground rules are, go here. 

TVOvermind: History & Evolution of King Ghidorah

Above, the Japanese poster of Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964).

The monster King Ghidorah made its debut in 1964 and has been around in Japanese science-fiction movies, in various forms, ever since.

King Ghidorah will be returning to movie houses when Godzilla: King of the Monsters is released by Legendary Pictures. Legendary obtained the rights to the King Ghidorah character from Toho Co., Ltd.

TVOvermind has an article on the history and evolution of King Ghidorah. Did you know that Ghidorah took its cue from Greek mythology?

They start it with:

In the Monsterverse the creatures just keep getting bigger, stronger, and overall meaner as things go along. King Ghidorah is one of those creatures that has proven that for every big, bad monster that comes along there’s going to be another bigger, badder monster that will eventually be able to topple them. For a while everyone thought that Godzilla was the undisputed king of the monsters, and for the most part this claim was hard to dispute. But when the other kaiju started rolling out and Godzilla started to have troubles with some of them people got the idea that while the great and fearsome lizard was still tough, he wasn’t always at the top of the heap. The thing about King Ghidorah is that while he’s big tough, and can put up one awesome fight, he was still given his share of weaknesses to deal with. His battles with Godzilla and the other monsters were epic, but in the end he was more the bad guy than any of them, and had to be teamed up on to be taken down.

To read more, go here.