Godzilla 2: Where does the King of the Monsters go next?

FeatureDon Kaye9/18/2014 at 8:29AM

Is the latest Godzilla reboot going to launch the next shared film universe after Godzilla 2 and Skull Island?

When the long-awaited reboot of Godzilla arrived in theaters this past May, fans breathed a cautious sigh of relief. Director Gareth Edwards had made a film that, while flawed, was respectful of and faithful to many of the elements that made the 1954 original -- as well as a number of later sequels -- such a longstanding and iconic monster movie: the seriousness of intent even with a premise so outlandish, the sense of awe and mythic power surrounding Godzilla himself, and the epic clashes between gigantic, nightmarish beasts that have always been at the heart of the kaiju genre.

We can debate just how much Edwards should or shouldn’t have included of the latter as we watch Godzilla again with its recent Blu-ray release. A recent video that surfaced online boiled the king of the monsters’ total screentime in the two-hour film down to about eight minutes. I think there’s a general feeling now that Edwards, while nobly wanting to keep the monsters offscreen for as long as possible and create a terrific build-up to Godzilla’s first appearance, might have went a bit too far in that direction. It didn’t help that his most interesting human character (who I won’t name here) leaves the film less than halfway through and that the remaining ones are not that dynamic.

It’s still a spectacular film in many regards, and looks and sounds amazing on Blu-ray. The special features include a four-part behind-the-scenes documentary on various aspects of the production (totaling about 40 minutes), as well as three “declassified” MONARCH video files that are allegedly part of the “cover-up” about Godzilla’s existence. Some of this stuff – particularly the grainy 1940s newsreel footage – shows up in the movie, but this is a more complete version of it. I was hoping that this bonus content might include some hints about Godzilla’s eventual return, but no such luck: there’s only a vague warning that he might come back.

However, Legendary Pictures president Thomas Tull created a sensation at this past July’s Comic-Con when he announced during Legendary’s panel presentation that not only was Godzilla 2 confirmed for release on June 8, 2018, but that Toho was pleased enough with the first film to agree to license its other major monsters -- namely Rodan, Mothra, and Godzilla’s three-headed arch-nemesis, King Ghidorah -- to the American studio for use in future movies. So with a suddenly bigger kaiju playground to romp and smash around in, where does Legendary take the series from here?

Rodan was the second major kaiju to gain traction with the public and it would be great fun to see the giant winged reptile take flight in a huge modern production. There were aspects of Rodan in the first film’s MUTOs – the one that flew made me think of Rodan several times – so a second film could legitimately advance the case that Rodan is a new kind of MUTO. The mythology established in the new Godzilla hinted at the idea of vast creatures existing well before humankind ever set foot on the planet, which leaves plenty of room to re-introduce some of the bigger Toho stars with revised origins.

But if Rodan and Godzilla could clash in a second film, what about Mothra? The original Mothra movies, with their singing fairy twins, and more poetic monster, were aimed a little more squarely at the children’s market – a direction that all the Japanese kaiju films followed in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Would Legendary be willing to spin Mothra off into its own film, something a little less dark and frightening that could appeal to younger viewers? Perhaps a new Mothra could be conceived as an adventure film set on a faraway island (Infant Island!) where giant caterpillars and moths roam freely.

The fourth member of the kaiju A-list, of course, is King Ghidorah, the fearsome three-headed dragon who has usually been sent by aliens to raze the Earth and wipe out its monster guardians. Here’s where things get interesting. If, say, the new Godzilla Cinematic Universe (GCU) follows the trajectory of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the first two or three movies could be the “grounded” ones – as grounded as movies about giant monsters can be anyway – in that they take place solely on Earth with reasonable evolutionary origins for the creatures. The introduction of King Ghidorah could bring space and extraterrestrial races into the mix – the same way that The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy have done.

From there, the sky is really the limit, depending on two factors: 1) how many monsters Toho is willing to license and 2) how well any of these films do at the box office. Legendary is bullish on building franchises in the face of middling box office – Pacific Rim was not a success here (although it was worldwide) and Godzilla just made it to $200 million, but both are getting sequels. If Legendary truly want to create a new version of the GCU or the Toho stable of kaiju, the possibilities are endless. Personal favorites that I would like to see onscreen again include Hedorah (hey kids, an environmental monster!), Biollante, Destoroyah, and even Megaguirus (I think a new version of Mechagodzilla would be cool too – a man-made deterrent to the big guy – but that might veer too close to the kaiju/Jaeger dynamic of Pacific Rim).

One last thing to consider: Legendary has also nabbed the rights to King Kong and is putting a prequel film called Skull Island into production for release in 2016. If that is a success, and if Godzilla 2 does well…would it be a stretch to imagine the big ape and the giant nuclear lizard clashing more than five decades after they first met in King Kong vs. Godzilla?

Let’s hope there’s more MONARCH “declassified” files – and more monsters – to come.