Godzilla Creator Teases the Next Movie After 'Godzilla vs. King Kong'

SAN DIEGO — The next Godzilla movie won’t arrive until next year when the iconic oversized lizard goes toe-to-toe with King Kong, but, in the meantime, the company behind the kaiju has set up camp at San Diego Comic-Con with a booth celebrating 65 years of Godzilla action. In an interview on the busy show floor, Toho’s head of project management Akito Takahashi tells Inverse what he hopes to see from future Godzilla movies and how the company’s approach to licensing out its monsters has evolved over the years.

“In the past, Toho licensed Godzilla to Hollywood,” Akito says. “From this year, we actually invested as well, and we’ve been working on the creative side, which has been very exciting as well.”

The big takeway, however, is that Mechagodzilla could be making a comeback, at least if Akito gets his way. The Toho executive also teased the possible return of the Jaeger, which might just be the Pacific Rim crossover that was allegedly scuttled back in 2017.

“Mechagodzilla has a huge impact and fanbase,” Akito says, “and that was probably something that might be coming in the future

The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

This is Toho’s first time at San Diego Comic-Con. What’s the significance of this year?

Comic-Con is very famous in Japan as well and we’ve always had an eye towards coming and doing something here. But it’s the 50th anniversary for Comic-Con and the 65th anniversary for Godzilla. We just had a movie come out in May, we’re having another one come out next year in 2020. So we thought, you know, the stars have aligned, we need to be here.

What is Toho’s involvement in the Godzilla Monster-verse movies?

So in the past, Toho has been licensing, sort of lending Godzilla to Hollywood, and one of the things they would do is make sure the image is right, the characters are aligned, making sure we’re happy with the Godzilla that’s been represented. And that has been doing wonderfully, so we’re very excited. From this year, we actually invested as well, and we’ve been working on the creative side, so there’s a little more involvement, which has been very exciting as well.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters received mixed reviews. How excited are you for the next movie, Godzilla vs. Kong.?

For this previous one, we were just thrilled, because it’s a very different type of Godzilla movie from the ones that were coming out. It’s just a blast from the beginning all the way through. Lots of action, lots of really great battle scenes, things that we could have never done that Hollywood is able to achieve.

It’s very exciting, and even the Japanese fans that have seen it, they leave the theater excited. That’s been a really great success for us and we’re really excited about the 2020 movie. It’s gonna be Godzilla, Japan made, versus King Kong, U.S. made. We can’t wait to see what the end result is going to be, but also how it’s going to be depicted on the screen.

King of the Monsters introduced a lot of classic Toho monsters. Do you have a favorite you want to see in future movies?

I do believe that mechanism Godzilla has a huge impact and fanbase, and that was probably something that might be coming in the future. Personally, I love the Jaeger, so I personally hope we can see him in the movies. It’s a minority character, not many people know him.

Is Toho more focused on creating new monsters or reintroducing old ones?

That really depends on the creator. We like giving that control to the creator, whether they want to bring back an old character they have a very special connection too, or there might be some directors who want to create new monsters. Where Toho stands is, we say yes to both because they’re both exciting. We want to see the new characters come onto the big screen, but also the older characters be revived as well

Godzilla vs. Kong hits theaters on March 13, 2020.*