As people still continue to enjoy the success of Toho’s Godzilla Minus One, the director of the film, Takashi Yamazaki, continues to talk about a possible sequel. During a recent interview, Yamazaki suggested that if he came back to direct a sequel he would introduce another Kaiju for Godzilla to battle.
During an interview with HJ Web, Yamazaki said: “If I were to direct the next Godzilla movie, I would like to do a sequel to this one. There have been two standalone Godzilla films in a row now, so perhaps the next one will need to feature a villain monster.”
The filmmaker definitely has a plan for a sequel because he set it up at the end of the first movie. The director previously explained that he laid the foundation for a sequel saying: “Godzilla is both a monster and a god. Godzilla is the Tatari-gami that appears in Princess Mononoke. After all, if you really think about it, isn’t it strange that the thing awakened by America’s nuclear tests is going to attack Japan? However, if you think of it as the Tatari-gami, it makes sense. A story about everyone working together to quell an attack by the Tatari-gami.”
Tatari-gami means “cursing gods,” and it was the demon that was in Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke. It’s a manifestation of negative energy that causes catastrophes and lays curses. Yamazaki believes these curses have a lot in common with Godzilla.
He explains: “Godzilla was born as a result of an American nuclear test and yet it was created in Japan. Isn’t it incredibly absurd that this happens? However, I believe that Japanese people sense they must accept this and consider it a curse. The Tatari-gami from Princess Mononoke also comes to a village he has no connections with, messes it up, and leaves behind a curse. That’s how I felt after making this film. I felt that making a Godzilla movie was a divine ritual. The ritual [gathers] the anxieties of the world at the time and summons them as a cursed deity which must be appeased.”
Godzilla Minus One ends with our main characters reuniting as Koichi learns Noriko ended up surviving a destructive Godzilla attack. We then learn that there’s a black mark hiding on Noriko’s neck, which tells us that she has been cursed by the kaiju.
There’s no doubt in my mind that we’ll see a sequel to Godzilla Minus One, and while it may take a while, I’m excited to see what kind of story will deliver.
