It’s hard to imagine a sequel to Shin Godzilla, Toho’s 2016 reboot of their flagship series. The head-scratching last shot alone leaves any sequel with a lot of explaining to do before it can get down to giant-monsters-punching-each-other business. Known also as Godzilla Resurgence (though the American release wound up sticking to the Japanese title, Shin Godzilla), Hideaki Anno (Evangelion) and Shinji Higuchi’s (Gamera) reimagining not only introduced a radically redesigned Godzilla, but also went to great lengths to suggest that the monstrous icon would continue to mutate into new forms. Unlike Hollywood franchises, which play it safe and set up their sequels years in advance, Shin Godzilla was so weird and radically different from what came before that it feels like a one-off experiment, destined to be the oddball entry before Godzilla returned to more familiar shapes.
But it worked. Not only was Shin Godzilla a great movie (one of the year’s best), but it was also Japan’s second biggest box office hit of 2016. And now a new trailer promises that Toho has much more in store for their raw and fleshy Godzilla. No, it’s not for a sequel, but for some sort of theme park “4D” experience:
With Anno focusing on his fourth rebooted Evangelion movie, it looks unlikely like the same team would get back together for a sequel. But the new Godzilla design’s continued relevance in Japanese pop culture suggests that Toho will move forward with this new Godzilla, whatever sequels may come.
