“Godzilla Minus Zero” is lumbering nearer.
The highly anticipated sequel to 2023’s “Godzilla Minus One,” the only film in the 70+ year franchise to ever win an Academy Award, arrives in theaters on Nov. 6 and will have its world premiere as the Spotlight Gala selection for the New York Film Festival on Saturday, Sept. 26.
But ahead of the movie’s debut, TOHO and GKIDS have unleashed a brand-new trailer, which is appropriately epic given that this is the first Japanese production filmed for Imax. Watch it below.
As the trailer states, two years have passed since the last film, meaning this entry takes place in 1949. And the realization that our heroes didn’t fully destroy Godzilla is settling in. They seemingly hatch a new plan to destroy Godzilla for good – at one point, it looks like some kind of zero-G energy field has taken over (“Minus Zero” indeed!) and at yet another point in the trailer, it seems like another kaiju will be introduced. There’s a particularly dramatic shot of Godzilla falling out of the sky. Who is he battling? Godzilla scholars will soon be interpreting the second shriek in the trailer for clues.
This new trailer indicates that the mixture of large scale destruction and thorny moral implications, both touchstones of the last film, will return for “Godzilla Minus Zero.” At one point, we hear voiceover of a character uncomfortable with the moral boundary that has been crossed. Considering the 1954 original “Godzilla” was made in response to the nuclear annihilation Japan suffered at the hands of Allied forces, this combination of popcorn movie fun and more thoughtful social commentary is a must. As the official synopsis describes, the sequel “cranks up the terror while always keeping its post-WWII Japan narrative at human eye level.”
The trailer also introduced several new characters, including Masami Nagasawa as Makoto Aoyama, “a genius weather forecaster assigned to the Disaster Response Bureau,” Jun Kunimura as Dr. Ogata, and Ko Maehara as Professor Murakami’s (Min Tanaka) assistant Akira Hagiwara. Additionally, the trailer confirms that Motosuke Iida will reprise his role as Akio Itagaki, “the Toyo Balloon section chief who made significant contributions to the Godzilla extermination operation” in the last movie, according to the official synopsis.
Writer, director and VFX supervisor Takashi Yamazaki returns for “Godzilla Minus Zero.” This will be the final film in the “Minus” cycle. As the trailer states: “There is no third time. Everything ends here.”
“Godzilla Minus Zero” will premiere at the New York Film Festival on Sept. 26 before storming into theaters on Nov. 6.
