Anna Daniels
The Godzilla franchise is unique in that it theoretically spans some 75 years, two distinct national film industries, and several reboot iterations. Launched in 1954 with Japan’s Toho studio release of Godzilla, the original version of the universe included fellow monsters — also known as “kaiju” — like Rodan and Mothra, who also had their own movies. Since then, the Japanese franchise has expanded to cover 32 straight-up Godzilla films and four separate series (Showa, Heisei, Millennium, and Reiwa), complete with creatures like Megaguirus, Destoroyah, and Biollante.
Eventually, Hollywood got involved, and while American filmmakers totally screwed things up with the 1998 reboot, the modern MonsterVerse has fared much better, starting with 2014’s appropriately named Godzilla. The MonsterVerse then brought King Kong into the mix with 2017’s Kong: Skull Island, which teased the introduction of future giant monster battles to come. This was expanded with 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters, which re-introduced classic nemeses like Mothra, Rodan, and Ghidorah into the mix. Next, Godzilla vs. Kong will have the two big baddies face off sometime in late 2020.
Outside the movies, Godzilla actually did battle with the likes of the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man in a comic book crossover, so technically it could be argued that the MonsterVerse and the MCU intersect, which would make a universe so huge that it boggles the mind. But that all took place in the comics, and we’re limiting our scope to the movies for now.
Written by: Looper
