Takashi Yamazaki will be back for Toho’s next Godzilla film, which will be a follow-up to a very tough act to follow, Godzilla Minus One. That film’s success made another installment that could possibly be a sequel inevitable, but it wasn’t Yamazaki’s only choice for his next project.
The filmmaker and visual effects artist has become an overnight success in many ways, and has had several offers sent his way. “I started receiving all kinds of great (film) offers,” he revealed at Godzilla Fest 2024, “I can’t tell you what offers they were. I turned them down, crying tears of blood, because they were making a new Godzilla movie.”
Via Japanese site Cinema Today, Yamazaki added, “Godzilla-1.0 went a little too well, and a lot of hurdles have come up. Thinking about it, I feel like this might be the worst draw.” Despite that comment, he assured the fans present, “I’ll do my best!”
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While he is tight-lipped, the director may have let it slip that he received an offer from Marvel – or at least that they had a conversation. “It seems they [overseas] also like steady fighting styles like Operation Wadatsumi. Even the president of Marvel [Kevin Feige] told me that. He said, ‘We’re all having meetings every day about whether we can create a plot development like that.'”
“Operation Wadatsumi” is a reference to the naval offensive used in Minus One to defeat Godzilla with the power of the ocean. Named after a Japanese water deity not so different from Gojira, the climactic scene got a superlative reaction at New York Comic Con.
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Kevin Feige and Yamazaki could’ve met there and might have talked business. The latter’s confession of offers makes such an incident and its implications entirely plausible. However, we won’t know for sure until either side is able to come totally clean.
Therefore, for now, Yamazaki is laser-focused on Godzilla and will take his time. “It’ll take a little longer, but I’ll do my best to make a Godzilla film that will surpass Godzilla-1.0, so please look forward to it! Thank you very much,” he said as his Godzilla Fest appearance drew to a close.
Just as there are no solid details about the next Godzilla or known working titles, no tentative release window has been hinted at either.
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