It’s learned that Toho will be creating a Godzilla Cinematic Universe featuring the popular characters from the franchise in their own movies.
Japanese company Toho, which owns the rights to the character, noted their new Godzilla Cinematic Universe is separate from the U.S. version that sees Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Godzilla vs. King Kong in the works.
Toho released Shin Godzilla in 2016 and said instead of releasing a sequel, they want to do a “World of Godzilla” possibly featuring solo movies for Mothra, King Ghidorah and other monsters that could crossover with each other like a Marvel movie where Iron Man and Hulk are in each other’s films. It’s said the monsters could lead a film of their own.
Toho also said they will not be releasing any Godzilla movies while the U.S. movie studios are releasing their own films, but instead will continue with their anime films, which is a trilogy, and the first movie can be found on Netflix (Part 2 was recently released in Japan and Part 3 gets released later this year – details here).
Toho will then start to release new live-action Godzilla movies of their own after 2021 and are thinking of releasing new films featuring the King of the Monsters every two years, although they could release movies every year as well.
It’s continued that Toho wants to be able to market Godzilla themselves overseas, as Warner Bros. held the rights, with an example given of even creating theme parks, merchandise, etc.
The Japanese company also hints they will be less restrictive in the use of the character (my note: How about Pacific Rim vs Godzilla?).
Current U.S. movies include:
Godzilla (2014)
Kong: Skull Island (2017)
Godzilla: King of the Monsters – May 31, 2019
Godzilla vs King Kong – May 22, 2020
Current Toho movies include:
Shin Godzilla (2016)
Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters (Netflix)
Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle (out in Japan)
Godzilla: Stareater – coming in 2018 to Japan
