The infamous American - madeGodzillamovie from 1998 was supposed to launch a trilogy , but it never bechance - and while there are multiple reason for that , there were already plans in place for what that trilogy would entail . Directed by Roland Emmerich , Godzillahit theater of operations in 1998 and was savaged by critics and Godzilla devotee alike , ultimately lead to the trilogy ’s cancellation .

bring about by TriStar and distributed by Sony Pictures , Godzillareimagined the King of the Monsters for American audience . For the moving-picture show , Godzilla pick up his most satisfying design ever . The flick tell the history of a jumbo creature created by radiation therapy . It grew to enormous size - but was still well poor of all former version - and attacked New York City , coerce the governance and the military to come up with a manner to stop him . After being gain with torpedoes , Godzilla was killed . However , the ending of the film set up a sequel by revealing that one of Godzilla ’s spawns still lives .

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This twist was never accompany up on , and a subsequence was never made , even though one was rumour for nearly 10 years after . A couple of sequels were really plan , but they never move forward and the 1998Godzillaremains a standalone movie . Here ’s what Sony’sGodzillatrilogy would have looked like , and why it never happened .

Godzilla 1998 Was Supposed To Launch A Trilogy

To makeGodzilla , Sony had to get the rights to the iconic character from Toho . The rights were acquired in 1992 , and Sony ’s intention to give up a trilogy ofGodzillamovies was officially confirmed . Not all the terms of the concord have been pin down , but Sony reportedly had to pay an upfront fee of $ 400,000 for the rights to Godzilla and the monsters who come out in his first 15 Toho film . Feeling thatGodzillawould be a success , Sony buy sequel rights from Toho for an extra $ 5 million ( equivalent to over $ 9 million today ) . The condition for the continuation was that it had to be made within five days of the first film ’s release , otherwise the right would regress back to Toho . Sony at last did n’t makeGodzilla 2 , and as a resultant role the rights expired in 2003 .

What Godzilla 1998’s Trilogy Would’ve Been About

Godzillaended with one of Godzilla ’s egg surviving the conflict with the military . Its survival was clearly mean to define up a sequel and the rise of a new Godzilla . And that ’s precisely what would have happened in TriStar’sGodzilla 2 . A handling indite by Tab Murphy confirms this plot of land point , and reveals that after becoming a full - grown Godzilla , the creature would have returned with an intact camp of adolescent Godzillas and do battle with an dirt ball - same monster in Australia .

Godzilla would also have developed an emotional attachment to Matthew Broderick ’s character from the first movie.1998Godzillaproducer Dean Devlinhas said thatGodzilla 2would be " remarkably unlike " from its predecessor , and thatGodzilla 3would " make a whole lot of sentiency " ifGodzilla 2did well ( viaSciFi Japan ) . Not much is known about where the third instalment would have taken the dealership , especially since the second movie never die far at all . It ’s also been read that Sony wanted to use multiple monster in the trilogy , and the initial deal for TriStar to apply kaiju from Godzilla ’s first 15 movies suggests that they may have had an interest group in using establish Toho monster .

Why Sony’s Godzilla Trilogy Never Happened

Godzilla ’s repute with fan and critic may suggest thatGodzillawas an all - around disaster , but this was really not the case . Despite all the negative reviews , Godzillawas a box function success at $ 379 million . That ’s only slightly less thanGodzilla : world-beater of the Monsters ' worldwide box officegross of $ 386 million . It easily made enough to justify a sequel , but their plans forGodzilla 2were complicated by other affair , such as the receipt to the film . An teemingness of disconfirming reviews had the studio bear on that a sequel would n’t be as profitable as the first motion picture . Emmerich and Devlin were expected to be involved inGodzilla 2 , but both ultimately drop out of the project over budget issue . With the negative receipt , it ’s likely the studio apartment was n’t willing to increase costs for the sequel given that the chances of one exceed the first movie were low .

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moreover , the overall fan response toGodzillahurt enthusiasm forGodzilla 2 , so it was determined that Sony would hold off on a sequel . That being said , they were n’t ready to give up on Godzilla that quickly . Their hope was that if they waited , they could outstrip themselves from the 1998 adaptation and bulge from scratch .   But with the right expiring in 2003 , this did n’t work either , and plan for any kind of conform to - up toGodzilla- whether it be a sequel or a reboot - were abandoned .

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Godzilla’s Failure Led To Two Movie Reboots

Other attempts to bring up theGodzillafranchise have been made since the nonstarter of the 1998 moving picture . Two months after it released , Toho begin development on its firstGodzillamovie since the character ’s expansive ritual killing in 1995’sGodzilla vs. Destoroyah . TitledGodzilla 2000 , the pic is turn over to be the first in the " Millenium " series , which dwell of six installments . The reboot came about as a unmediated result of buff ebullience , which saw a significant revitalization after the American adaptation . The Godzilla fanbase was so disappointed that it resulted in a high degree of need for Toho to revive the franchise . Godzilla 2000updated Godzilla ’s aspect by giving him royal back spikes and red atomic breathing spell , but stay true to the major facet of Godzilla ’s design .

yr later , Legendary and Warner Bros. began make on aGodzillamovie of their own . Because of what happened with the 1998 picture , fans had trepidation about a Godzilla movie made by Hollywood , and in a way the failure of 1998Godzillaserved as an exercise for what Legendaryshouldn’tdo with Godzilla . Legendary made it readable early on that their aim was to stay closely to the original Godzilla and avoid any comparison to the 1998 version - not to mention modernise the character while also laying the cornerstone for a much more grand dealership . Thanks to Roland Emmerich ’s moving-picture show , Legendary understood that any substantial diversion from Godzilla ’s traditional design would have a negative wallop on the movie .

Godzilla’s Movie Future Explained

Legendary has create a shared cinematic universe for Godzilla and Kong , telephone the MonsterVerse . So far , it has three installments : Godzilla , Kong : Skull Island , andGodzilla : King of the Monsters . A quaternary motion picture , Godzilla vs. Kong , is the last confirm movie on their slate , and is scheduled for a November 2020 release , though it was to begin with set to to hit dramatics in March . King of the Monsterspulling in unsatisfying numbers at the corner office is potential the account for the postponement . The other MonsterVerse movies have been successful , so ifGodzilla vs. Kongis able to do well , Warner Bros. may have the confidence to make more movies about Godzilla and his fellow Titans .

Toho has their own plans for the Japanese tonic culture ikon . Though Toho’sShin Godzillawas a success for the studio apartment , they ’re take off over in the near future . Toho intends to use the MCU as a poser for theirGodzillamovies , which imply they want a shared cinematic universe where Godzilla and other Toho monsters can have their own solo movies and appear in crossovers . Toho is currently calling it " World of Godzilla " . However , none of these movies will be free until after 2021 . The cause for the foresightful time lag is due to the terminus of its deal with Legendary . Toho and Legendary ca n’t makeGodzillamovies in the same year . This makes sense , consider that it ’s in the best interests of both studio that their movies head off contest with each other . So even if Legendary ’s MonsterVerse does n’t end up continue afterGodzilla vs. Kong ,   Godzilla still has a hopeful time to come on the big screen .

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