‘Godzilla’ Is the Longest Running Sci-Fi Franchise & Keeps Getting Better

Guess what city planners, engineers, architects, and construction workers hate the most? Politicians? No! Clerks who keep the wheels of bureaucracy running? No! They hate Godzilla. All their great work gets undone in a day by the kaiju just walking around. But we all love to watch it.

Godzilla is now recognized by the Guinness World Records as the “longest continuously running film series,” as it’s been in ongoing production since 1954. At the moment, there are 38 Godzilla films: 33 from Japan, produced and distributed by Toho Co., Ltd., and five from Hollywood; one by TriStar Pictures and four belonging to the Monsterverse franchise by Legendary Pictures.

The franchise is so admirable because it’s never gotten stale. You would think that people would quickly get tired of watching monsters walk, fight, and swim all the time. No chance. Godzilla keeps getting better, thanks to consistent quality storytelling and fresh approaches.

‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ Has Made Godzilla More Relevant

At some point, the Godzilla franchise ran the risk of becoming monotonous… until someone came up with the idea to make Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. Set in the Monsterverse and featuring a strong cast that includes the father-son duo of Wyatt Russell and Kurt Russell, the TV series stands out because it focuses on the human characters rather than the kaijus.

Monarch covers two timelines. One sequence of events stems from the 2014 Godzilla movie. Two half-siblings, Cate and Kentaro Randa, investigate their missing father’s Monarch, the covert organization tasked with monitoring giant monsters known as Titans or MUTOs (“Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms”). The other sequence goes back decades when the scientists Bill Randa and Keiko Miura become involved with the early development of Monarch.

Now in its second season, Monarch continues to break new ground on television. Since the Titans only appear in a few scenes, their sequences feel carefully thought out, and the CGI looks better than it does in the movies. There are also more detailed scientific explanations regarding the biology and behavior of the creatures, making all these feel like a sweet lecture rather than just a show aimed at generating ratings. Most importantly, the father-son duo of Kurt and Wyatt Russell plays off each other beautifully, making a case for similar castings in the future.

Different Approaches From Japan and America Have Kept the ‘Godzilla’ Franchise Fresh

© Toho International / Courtesy Everett Collection

The Godzilla franchise has remained interesting because Japan and America present the kaiju (and other monsters) in different ways. In Japan, the stories have always been allegorical. In the original 1954 film, Godzilla mutates from nuclear bomb testing. This is directly inspired by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the 1954 Lucky Dragon No. 5 incident, where Japanese fishermen were exposed to nuclear fallout from tests conducted by America. Shin Godzilla, which sadly flopped in the West, is also inspired by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, while Godzilla Minus One explores post-WWII suffering.

In Hollywood, the Godzilla stories have been nothing but blockbusters meant to entertain. Action, visuals, and spectacle are the main ingredients, and they ensure that audiences (both young and old) see them in theaters in large numbers. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as many movies are made with the same goal. So, the choice between the American and Japanese productions is a choice between whether one wants to be entertained or intellectually stimulated.

Many criticized Roland Emmerich when he made the first American big-budget Godzilla movie in 1998. He deserves credit for choosing a different route… one that would differentiate his work from the earlier Japanese productions. While critics panned his film, the tone and style were considered cool enough to be used as a template. Monsterverse films have kept the mayhem-without-allegory format and tell a fairly straightforward but still entertaining story.

The Hypergrowth of ‘Godzilla’ Continues…

Warner Bros.

Did you think that Godzilla was too big? The franchise continues to grow at a rapid rate. Godzilla Minus Zero, a sequel to Godzilla Minus One, is scheduled to be released on Nov. 3, 2026, in Japan, and Nov. 6 in the United States. Considering how big the previous movie was, this is a sensible move. The film also earned an Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects. In Hollywood, Godzilla x Kong: Supernova is set to be released Mar. 26, 2027, serving as the sixth film in the Monsterverse.

The boom isn’t just a 2020s thing. There were nine Godzilla movies in the 2010s alone, proving that the demand is still as high as ever and confirming that everything being made is turning a huge profit. Legendary Pictures deserves credit for injecting new life into the franchise with the release of Godzilla in 2014. There hadn’t been a new movie since Toho made Godzilla: Final Wars, and after poor reviews, the hype had been dying down.

However, Hollywood still hasn’t caught up with Japan in quality and quantity. Of all the six American Godzilla movies released so far, only three have positive scores on Rotten Tomatoes. However, only nine of the 33 Japanese movies have negative scores. The bank is the only area where the Tinseltown films appear to be doing better. For example, Godzilla Minus One only made $116 million globally, a dismal sum compared to Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’s $572 million.

So, what’s better? Art or finance? In the words of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (in his wrestling days), “It doesn’t matter!” What matters is that Godzilla is still standing tall.