2023 didn’t just see Godzilla return thanks to Apple TV+’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, it also saw the towering titan make a splash with the theatrical release, Godzilla Minus One. Cheered by critics and audiences alike, the new take on the king of the monsters had plenty of kaiju fans falling in love with one of the scariest iterations of the lizard king. Lo and behold, director Adam Wingard, who will return to the MonsterVerse with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, was quite a fan of this recent film from Toho.
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Besides helming the first kaiju crossover movie of the MonsterVerse, Godzilla Vs. Kong, Wingard has made a name for himself with some cult classics in the pop culture sphere. Movies like The Guest, Blair Witch, and V/H/S proved that the director can handle monsters of both the kaiju and human variety. Returning to the Hollow Earth in April of this year, Wingard has added actor Dan Stevens to the cast and has already confirmed that quite a few new monsters will be making appearances in the second round. Thanks to his love of all things kaiju, it should come as no surprise that Wingard fell in love with Godzilla Minus One.
Wingard’s Love For Godzilla Minus One
In a recent listing of his top favorite films of 2023, Adam Wingard stated that Godzilla Minus One easily ranked amongst his top picks for last year. Alongside the new take on the king of the monsters, Wingard listed the likes of Oppenheimer, Napoleon, Beau is Afraid, The Killer, Thanksgiving, The Exorcist: believer, The Super Mario Bros Movie, and Zone of Interest to round out his picks.
Recently, we here at ComicBook.com had the opportunity to chat with director Takashi Yamazaki about his iteration of the king of the monsters in Godzilla Minus One. Yamazaki broke down how he approached his version of the popular kaiju, “I feel that my Godzilla for this Godzilla is very specific for the story because there’s a tendency with Godzilla is that he’s obviously a massive existence and there can be a tendency to split the story a bit versus this is going on with Godzilla, this is going on with the people or the government and things like that. However, one of my goals was to have a good balance between the Godzilla side of the story and the human story. So in Godzilla Minus One, I think it’s a lot more unique because you’re looking at the individual relationship, what kind of relationship they have to Godzilla, how they see Godzilla. So it’s individuals and also civilians that are really focused on their story and relationship to Godzilla. So I think that’s unique out of all the Godzillas.”
