The first footage of Godzilla Minus One has made its way online. The movie is the 33rd Godzilla installment produced by Toho, the 37th in the overall franchise, and the eighth film in Godzilla’s Reiwa era, which started with Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi’s Shin Godzilla before moving onto Netflix’s animated trilogy. Godzilla Minus One is written, produced, and directed by Takashi Yamazaki, best known for having helmed Stand by Me Doraemon and Lupin III: The First.

On Twitter, the official Godzilla Toho page has released the first Godzilla Minus One teaser trailer. A poster was also released alongside it, confirming the movie’s North American release date on December 1. Check out the trailer and poster for Godzilla Minus One below:

While Godzilla Minus One teaser is extremely brief, it showcases Godzilla’s new redesign while setting the story in post-war Japan. It also gives a rather chilling look at Godzilla’s destruction without revealing too much.

On the other hand, the poster gives a clearer glimpse of what Godzilla will look like in the latest franchise installment, with the tagline “From the ashes of war” further hyping the time period.

Everything We Know About Godzilla Minus One

While not much is known about its main cast, Godzilla Minus One will be set in post-war Japan, where Godzilla becomes a new threat to the country after they have been devastated by World War II. In an interview with Forbes, Toho’s Koji Ueda explains that Godzilla brings Japan into a “minus” after the war. That statement means the new movie will not be a direct sequel to Shin Godzilla or the animated films, but will instead be set before the events of those installments.

It will, however, share continuity with Anno and Higuchi’s movie, but few details have been given on how Shin Godzilla and Godzilla Minus One will connect. The movie will be a part of Toho’s new initiative to promote Godzilla around the world and reinvent a franchise that has been a part of pop culture’s collective imagination for almost 70 years. The first film of the Reiwa era, Shin Godzilla was a critical and commercial success, grossing over $78 million worldwide and becoming the highest-grossing live-action Japanese movie of 2016.

The Godzilla franchise is a moneymaker, even if its American riff on the character through Legendary’s MonsterVerse has had successes and disappointments. While 2014’s Godzilla was a commercial hit, its sequel, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, was less so. On the other hand, Adam Wingard’s Godzilla vs. Kong was perceived as a success, as it broke several box office records during the COVID-19 pandemic. Beyond Godzilla Minus One, fans should also anticipate the sequel to Godzilla vs. Kong, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which will make its way to theaters in 2024.

Source: Godzilla_Toho/Twitter, Forbes