Why Hasn't There Been An American "Gamera" Movie ๐บ๐ธ Yet?
(This is a piece of fan art of Gamera, showing a darker grittier take on the character than we've gotten out of the movies, besides maybe Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris, which this design was probably heavily influenced by. Or in the 2015 short film that was made for the franchise's 50th anniversary. It was done by a Japanese artist ๐ฏ๐ต named Yuu Kato, who goes by flickerblue1999 on Twitter ๐ฆ AKA X. Their name was written in Japanese ๐ฏ๐ต like this, ใซใใฆ ใฆใฆ, on the website Pixiv, which is a Japanese art sharing platform ๐ฏ๐ต similar to DeviantART here in the US ๐บ๐ธ, I have an account on here, and the only reason why I know it was Yuu Kato is that I put into DuckDuckGo translate and it came out as Yuu Kato. I'll put a link to their Pixiv page right here you can take a look at the original source for this picture and see their other art. Just click "here" and it'll open the page in a new tab that you can look at while you're reading this post.)
The last time I wrote a Gamera related post on this blog, it was a review of the Netflix ONA (original net animation), Gamera: Rebirth, a show I hated so much ๐ค that I couldn't even finish it. I gave on it like 2 episodes in, and it's a 12 episode series. In the foreword I said it was 5 episodes, but it's actually 12. That's how much I couldn't stand this show. It was mostly the human characters and the animation that ruined for me, the actual monster stuff was good, but man, those human characters were unbearable, I hated them all ๐ค✊. Even the adults, because unfortunately, this was one of those Gamera projects where kids were the protagonists instead of adults, even though the show isn't actually aimed at kids. Like, they use swear words throughout it, and they even drop an F bomb at one point.
And on top of that, most of the swearing in the series, in the two episodes I actually watched, was from the kids and not the adults. Is that something you want your kid to be seeing? A show where the kids cuss and use bad words including the dreaded F bomb (not the gay slur ⚣, I'm talking about the F word that starts with F and ends in K)? I'm not a parent (I don't plan on becoming a parent anytime soon), but I imagine not. So I don't understand what the point was in making the main protagonists of the show kids other than that's just the Gamera franchise has almost always done. Besides Gamera vs. Barugon and the Heisei Gamera trilogy, most of the Gamera movies have kids in them. If not as the main protagonists, then as prominent side characters or supporting characters, as was the case in the very first Gamera movie, Gamera, the Giant Monster, otherwise known as Gammera the Invincible.
The American version of that movie ๐บ๐ธ added an extra "M" to Gamera's name, probably involve gamma radiation ฮณ☢️, which is what I thought Gamera's name referred to for the longest time, but in reality, his name is meant to invoke the Japanese word ๐ฏ๐ต for "turtle ๐ข," which is kame, and the suffix, -ra, which is a common suffix used particular for kaiju names, including Godzilla, whose Japanese name ๐ฏ๐ต is Gojira, which is a combination of the Japanese words ๐ฏ๐ต for gorilla ๐ฆ and whale ๐, gorira and kujira respectively, and Mothra, whose Japanese name ๐ฏ๐ต is Mosura, which is a suffixation of the English word for "moth" with -ra.
It was really that movie that set the precedent for the rest of the franchise to focus on kids and putting a stronger emphasis on kids than on adults. Most of the Gamera movies, especially the ones from the Shลwa era are kid's movies. You can kind of argue whether or not the Shลwa era Godzilla movies post-Godzilla Raids Again were kid's movies (the ones made in-between Ghidorah, the Three Headed Monster and Destroy All Monsters and in-between Destroy All Monsters and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974) were definitely kid's movies, except maybe for Godzilla vs. Hedorah despite having a kid in it), but without a shadow of a doubt, the Shลwa era Gamera movies were all kid's movies, except for Gamera vs. Barugon. The one with the monster that shoots rainbows ๐ out of his back is the most adult out of all them. There isn't a single kid in that entire movie.
Almost no one would argue with that, even fans of Gamera. Which I cannot claim to be since I've only watched the Heisei movies, and none of the other ones. I want to get into more into Gamera, which is part of the reason why I'm even writing this post. That's why the Shลwa era Gamera movies tend to not be most people's favorite, even though they make up the majority of the franchise, and a lot of people think the franchise peaked with the Heisei Gamera trilogy, and so far nothing has topped it since. To be fair, there was only more movie after the Heisei trilogy, Gamera the Brave, which came out in 2006, 7 years after the Heisei trilogy ended with Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris. There hasn't been a Gamera movie since then. It is was so refreshing to have a trilogy of Gamera movies focused mainly on adults, where adults were the main protagonists, and if there were any kids in it at all, they mostly pushed to the sidelines and into the background. Almost none of the kids that are in the Heisei trilogy are in the lead roles.
Those movies are the most adult films in the franchise besides Gamera vs. Barugon, which did set the precedent for having Gamera movies be centered around adults and not kids. Now of course, they're not completely adult, kids can still watch them if they want, but they were specifically made for kid's. They're not explicitly kid's movies like the Shลwa era movies or are like Gamera the Brave is. They're more of an all-ages type of movie kind of, more PG-13 than R. Which is funny that I say since we do have a Godzilla movie coming out (or already is out by the time this goes up) now that's actually R rated. Godzilla Minus Zero made history by becoming first Godzilla movie to be rated R. Writer, director, visual effects supervisor, Takashi Yamazaki said that he was pressured to make it PG-13, to cut out the scene or scenes that made it R rated, but he refused, feeling that they were important to the story. I don't know what story elements or scene or scenes he's talking about because I haven't seen the movie (most Americans ๐บ๐ธ haven't), but it's clear that he felt strongly about it and thus the movie stayed R rated and made history.
I'm still not sure how I feel about Godzilla Minus Zero being the first Godzilla movie to be rated R. I have no hype for that movie whatsoever because I didn't even see the first one, and I have no interesting watching the first one either. I just don't like movies when they become too overhyped, when they become too popular. It makes me less interested in watching it than if it was less popular, or just moderately popular. Not astronomical levels. The only time I like something that's popular is if I got into it before it really popular, like Avatar: The Last Airbender ๐จ, although I like that show a lot less now that it is super popular, or just as it was becoming popular, like the Michael Bay Transformers movies, although those movies have a lot of hate towards them, at least online, so they're not that popular. Though they have developed something of a cult following in recent years.
Or I like getting into something after it was super popular but isn't anymore like Kill la Kill, or Independence Day (both movies), or Space Dandy, or Dan Da Dan, or Yo-kai Watch. Though I question whether or not Space Dandy was ever really that popular, especially in Japan ๐ฏ๐ต, and if Dan Da Dan is still popular or not. I guess it kind of is, but I don't really see anyone talk about it anymore, at least not to the same degree as when it was at the peak of its popularity. When Season 2 was still airing and when the movies came out, which were just condensed versions of the story arcs in Seasons 1 and 2. Which is what the majority of anime "movies" are nowadays. They're just condensed versions of story arcs from the regular series. But definitely Yo-kai Watch fits into that category of something that was really popular but it isn't anymore. That franchise was a juggernaut, especially in Japan ๐ฏ๐ต (which makes sense since it's a franchise centered around yลkai and yลkai are a uniquely Japanese concept ๐ฏ๐ต, so of course it would be super popular in Japan ๐ฏ๐ต), Level 5 was an empire, but now it's not anymore. Now the franchise's kind of faded into obscurity, and has become more of niche thing that only really the hardcore fans still talk about to this day.
That's why I didn't watch KPop Demon Hunters ๐ฐ๐ท and I never intend on watching it, because it became too popular. I like stuff that's more niche, things that aren't that popular or get talked about that often. That's the space I like to exist in and explore. That's why besides Cowboy Bebop (1998), Inuyasha, Akira (1988), and Ghost in the Shell (not a singular anime but the franchise as a whole), most of the anime I like watching and talking about are more obscure and lesser known anime that hardly anyone talks about like Desert Punk ๐️. If you want to talk obscure anime, you can't get more obscure than Desert Punk ๐️. That anime is so obscure that it doesn't even have Blu-Ray release ๐ฟ. It got one DVD release ๐ ☝️ and that was it. It's so obscure that people have uploaded the entire series on YouTube English dubbed and it hasn't been copyright claimed © as far as I know. Most people probably haven't even heard of it, let alone seen it. Now that's an an anime I'm interested in, that's an anime I'd like to see.
Call me a hipster all you want, that's how I feel. I'm way more hyped for Godzilla x Kong: Supernova than I am for Godzilla Minus Zero, that's more the kind of Godzilla movie that I like, and there hasn't even been a single trailer for that movie yet besides that announcement trailer last year, when they just announced that the movie was in production and it would be out in 2027. The MonsterVerse is moderately popular, it's not super obscure or niche, it's popular enough to make money ๐ต and continue and expand into comic books, video games (though most of them are mobile games), and streaming shows, but it's not super popular either. It's not Godzilla Minus One or Godzilla Minus Zero levels of popular. But I feel like it's become less popular and less favored ever since Godzilla Minus One came out.
Like, ever since Minus One came out, it's become popular to dunk on the MonsterVerse, and it's become a popular sentiment that the Minus movies by Takashi Yamazaki are real Godzilla movies while the MonsterVerse movies are the fake ones, and they're less legitimate and less good than the Minus movies. Like, some Godzilla fans think that every Godzilla movie should be like the Minus movies and that they show what the franchise is really all about, while the MonsterVerse is just dumb and stupid and shouldn't be taken into consideration. Which I obviously don't agree with at all. I think there is plenty of space for fun Godzilla movies that aren't serious, that aren't trying to be overly emotional or say something profound, and are mostly just meant to entertain. There's nothing wrong with that, and unfortunately, a lot of critics and even some Godzilla fans don't think that way.
Plus, I think at least some of those same Godzilla fans are just sour over the fact that the recent entries of the MonsterVerse have focused less on Godzilla and more on Kong. Like, they're not pure Godzilla movies anymore, they're Godzilla/Kong movies, with way more emphasis on Kong. With some even saying that Godzilla isn't the main character of the MonsterVerse anymore, Kong is. Which I don't necessarily have a problem with since I like King Kong too, especially the MonsterVerse version of him. He's effectively replaced the Peter Jackson version as my favorite version of the character. Who is just called Kong for legal reasons because Universal still has the rights to the name, King Kong. So Legendary are only able to call him Kong in the MonsterVerse.
But while the next movie in the series is still going to be a Godzilla and Kong movie obviously (both of their names are in title, Godzilla x Kong), it will rectify that issue and be more Godzilla focused. At least, that was the plan when Adam Wingard was still attached. But I think they'll probably stick to that plan somewhat even though Grant Sputore is directing instead of him. Which BTW was due to scheduling conflicts because Wingard was too busy directing Onslaught (2026) to direct Supernova, which I have reviewed on here if you're interested. It was one of the movies I reviewed for October, during spooky season. I tried to review only horror or horror adjacent movies, since I'm not the biggest horror fan. I'm more of an action movie fan. The one genre of horror films that I like the most is the creature feature, and unfortunately, that's not really the genre of horror that's getting made right now. Beware Boiรบna notwithstanding, which I also reviewed last month.
They will certainly try to rectify the complaint that the human characters in the MonsterVerse movies aren't that compelling. They said that will try to improve the human characters in Supernova, though hopefully that means we won't get an overly human focused story like we did in Godzilla (2014). Human drama is more the Minus movies' thing, the MonsterVerse doesn't really need to do that. People would just say that they're copying the Minus movies if they did that. What the MonsterVerse is good at is delivering spectacle and making the monster truly compelling characters that you actually care about. The humans are more side characters, they're supporting characters in the monsters' story. Like, I think Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is the best example of how do to a human centric story in the MonsterVerse, like if they're really serious about wanting Supernova to be a more human focused story, or making the human story within the movie more robust, I hope they looked to Monarch.
That's about as much as I would want the movie to focus on the humans, though from what it seems, it seems like Season 2 put a lot more emphasis on spectacle than Season 1 did because fans did complain the first season didn't have enough monster action. Even though the whole point of the series was to focus on Monarch, the secret government organization set up to deal with giant monsters, or Titans as they're called within the MonsterVerse, and tell the backstory of Monarch. Show how it was established. Of course it would focus more on humans than monsters. But, it seems that they listened to those complaints because judging from the clips of the second season that I've seen, it has a lot more monster action than Season 1. Which isn't a bad thing necessarily, I like monster action, I think spectacle is what the MonsterVerse is best at, but I think a lot of fans failed to understand the original purpose of the show, which is why they made those complaints in the first place.
And Season 2 is also more focused on Kong than Godzilla, they teased that Season 2 would be more Kong centric, and it seems like it was because the characters travel to Skull Island at one point, and Kong is ultimately the one that defeats Titan X, or at least ends the conflict peacefully by choosing not to kill her, once he realizes what's really going on and that she was trying to protect her egg, and the humans drove her to act this way. Judging by the end of Season 2, which I have seen not realizing it was the end, it seems Season 3 (if there is one) will focus on Rodan, since they show Rodan at the end like they did Kong at the end of Season 1. So hopefully, they follow through and it is more Rodan centric since Rodan has not seen in the franchise since Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019).
He's the only other Toho monster besides King Ghidorah (kind of) that hasn't reappeared in any other MonsterVerse media, besides maybe the comics. But from the way the comics have gone, it seems like they usually only feature one main monsters, usually either Godzilla or Kong, and then a bunch of original monsters. They're not packed with Toho characters, or even well established legacy characters like Kong, since they only have the rights to a few of them. They haven’t even appeared in the mobile game, Godzilla x Kong: Titan Chasers, the only Toho monster that game features is of course Godzilla himself, and then Kong is in it too obviously (if the title didn't already make that clear). All the other monsters in the game are original monsters that were either created specifically for that game, or have appeared in other MonsterVerse media like the comics and the movies.
Like, it features the Skullcrawlers and Warbats, both creatures that appeared in the Kong movies, Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla vs. Kong, and more associated with Kong’s mythos, they’re more monsters that Kong fights than Godzilla fights. Godzilla has never even fought the Skullcrawlers or the Warbats, not even in the comics I don’t think. Since the Skullcrawlers only really appear on Skull Island and the Warbats are only in Hollow Earth ๐. The most high profile monster among the original ones in Titan Chasers is Shimo, who first appeared in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, the most recent film in the series up until Supernova comes out. The existence of Titan Chasers, and some of the lore the game seems to establish and the storyline it’s telling, Monarch apparently building entire cities in Hollow Earth ๐, makes me wish that we had a proper fighting game set within the MonsterVerse, and not just a mobile game. Maybe the MonsterVerse Godzilla will get to be a DLC guest character in Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered ๐คท♂️.
Though, if the rumors about Supernova are to be believed, they managed to get one more ☝️, and they managed to get one that isn't one of the Big Five. Those being of course, Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, King Ghidorah, and Mechagodzilla. And the MonsterVerse Rodan is just so badass. His design, his personality, everything about him is so badass. He should appear more often in the MonsterVerse. So hopefully, if Monarch gets a third season, it will focus more on him, and will give us more Rodan screen time. Maybe even more than in King of the Monsters (2019) since he really didn't have that much screen time in that movie. He didn't really have a role in the story besides being an obstacle for the humans and later being King Ghidorah's lackey. He really just there so that the movie could have more Toho characters besides Godzilla, and also to look cool, which he does.
I think I would've preferred if another Godzilla movie had been the first R rated Godzilla movie instead of Minus Zero. Like, I wonder what it would be like if Godzilla: Final Wars had been R rated, since the first movie that Ryuhei Kitamura made before Final Wars was Versus (2000), a low budget zombie movie ๐ง♂️ set entirely in a forest ๐ณ with lots of blood and gore ๐ฉธ as a zombie movie ๐ง♂️ should. Sure, you can make a zombie movie ๐ง♂️ that's PG-13 like World War Z ๐ง♂️, but it won't be as good. Imagine what it would be like if he was given even more freedom on Final Wars, and got to make it R rated. Especially since that movie features human action as well as monster action. Human one-on-fights as well as the monsters we're mostly used to seeing.
If the Wart Dogs' blood had been red ๐ด instead of green ๐ข in The New Empire, that movie would've been R rated very easily. A couple of people actually did edits of that scene where the blood actually is red ๐ฉธ, you can watch it here by clicking on this link ๐. Or this one, the blood ๐ฉธ is a little bit of a darker red in this edit, although you can still see the green ๐ข. But now that precedent has been set that Godzilla movies can be R rated, I would be interested in seeing an R rated movie about Hedorah. If not a Godzilla movie with Hedorah in it, then an actual Hedorah solo film. I think Hedorah's a character that would benefit from an R rating since Godzilla vs. Hedorah, even though it is technically a kid's movie, it is pretty dark and grim, and it is pretty gruesome. There are some pretty gruesome deaths in that movie. And of course, since Godzilla's the good guy in that movie, most of the deaths are caused by Hedorah, who is the villain of the movie.
Of the Shลwa era Godzilla movies that are often considered kid's movies, Godzilla vs. Hedorah is probably the least kiddie out of all of them, and that was 100% by design by Yoshimitsu Banno, was also an executive producer on all the MonsterVerse movies up until his death in 2017, though was still credited posthumously as an executive producer on King of the Monsters (2019), Godzilla vs. Kong, and The New Empire. Whether that trend will continue or if it'll change with Supernova is yet to be seen. Plus, knowing that King Ghidorah is going in the movie and Godzilla's going to fight King Ghidorah, also kind of killed any hype or interest I had watching the movie. They really shouldn't have put that in the trailer, they shouldn't have put that King Ghidorah chitter or cackle, whatever you want to call it, if they wanted that to be a big surprise and a big reveal, which it seems like they did. Like, once you put that sound effect in there, Godzilla fans will instantly figure out, yes, it is King Ghidorah, he's going to be in this movie.
The ride, Godzilla the Ride: Giant Monster Battle already spoiled the movie, like if you were in Japan ๐ฏ๐ต you could the ride, and instantly figure out that Godzilla will fight King Ghidorah in the next movie because they put King Ghidorah in the ride and the plot of the ride is that Godzilla fights King Ghidorah. And Rodan, since Rodan makes an appearance in the ride, though judging by the plot summary of the ride on Wikizilla, it seems like Rodan is actually an ally of Godzilla in this, or he's just an enemy of King Ghidorah, since he attacks King Ghidorah and fights him briefly, before King Ghidorah gains the upper hand and defeats him. Though it's unclear if he actually kills Rodan or if he just knocks him out, since the plot summary never mentions Rodan again after King Ghidorah knocks him to the ground with his Gravity Beams.
That's just pretty much like the fight between King Ghidorah and Rodan in Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), only Rodan doesn't turn and switch sides to King Ghidorah after losing to him. Minus Zero doesn't actually feature Rodan from what I know, it just has Godzilla and King Ghidorah, but the plot of the movie seems to be exactly the same as the ride. It just has the added human drama that continues on from the first movie. Even outside Japan ๐ฏ๐ต, people will find out that King Ghidorah is in Minus Zero, not just from spoilers for the film itself, but also watching footage from this ride that people who rode it took. Interestingly though, looking at the Wikizilla page on the ride, it actually predates Minus One by two years, and King Ghidorah does have a slightly different design than he does in Minus Zero from what I've seen. But the ride was written and directed by Takashi Yamazaki, it has the same style and aesthetic as the Minus movies, and the Godzilla design, while not exactly the same as the one in the Minus movies is pretty similar, so it's clear that there is a through line between this ride and those movies.
It's like he took the plot of this ride that he wrote and directed, and pretty much made it the plot of the second movie. He just removed Rodan, and had it just be Godzilla and King Ghidorah as far as I know. Meaning that Minus Zero is the second time in which it was just Godzilla and King Ghidorah in a movie in one-on-one fight. The first time of course was Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah. If only we could another Godzilla movie where it's just Godzilla and Mechagodzilla in a one-on-one fight just like Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla. I feel like I just gave Takashi Yamazaki ideas. That's probably what he'll make the third Minus movie, since judging by the review I saw by Up From the Depths and judging by the box office so far (at least in Japan ๐ฏ๐ต, the movie barely released here in the United States ๐บ๐ธ and Canada ๐จ๐ฆ), there probably will be a third movie, and it'll probably focus on another monster besides Godzilla, and it'll probably be one of the Big Five.
If not Mothra, then it'll be Mechagodzilla. Maybe it might feature Rodan, but I doubt they'd make him the main focus, but more like a side character. An appetizer before the main course. I could see that since the US ๐บ๐ธ wants to weaponize Godzilla, and they don't really get that chance in the film, so building a robot version of Godzilla would be the next best thing. Either way, I probably won't watch it. I'm not invested in these movies at all, and I'm not going to pretend like I am. I'm only invested in the MonsterVerse. I am getting tired of seeing just seeing the Big Five in every movie, and I wish that they feature other monster besides the ones in the Big Five. Like could you imagine if instead of King Ghidorah for the umpteenth time, the monster that Godzilla fought in Minus Zero was Gigan or even Megalon? Or even Hedorah? How about Destoroyah? or even just Anguirus, the very first monster Godzilla ever fought on film, in the second ever Godzilla movie, Godzilla Raids Again? Again, not that I'm invested in the Minus movies. That's why I'm hoping the rumors are true about SpaceGodzilla being in Supernova, and being the main antagonist, I would kill to have more Toho kaiju that aren't just one of the Big Five again ๐.
But, I am in a much better mood writing this post than I was when I originally wrote my Gamera: Rebirth review on DeviantART, since I did originally write that review for DeviantART and then I reposted it on this blog. A lot of has to do with the fact that the Democrats won big last night (Tuesday November 3, 2026). They took back control of the House and Senate, both chambers of Congress, which has only happened a few times in the past, like only a handful of times, and they won it by huge numbers. A number of previously red states ๐ด that no one thought would ever go blue ๐ต flipped, most notably Texas and Kansas, which hasn't elected a Democratic senator since 1932. That was over 94 years ago. It was before World War II ever happened, it was before The Wizard of Oz was released. It was even before the original King Kong movie was released, in 1933, the year after. Prohibition was still a thing when Kansas last elected a Democratic senator before this year of course.
There were many others, like Georgia, which elected the first black woman ♀︎ as governor in American history ๐บ๐ธ, but those were the two most people were focused on because they were so unprecedented. No body ever believed Texas would ever go blue ๐ต, but it did, both on the senate level and on the governor level, and that's a victory worth celebrating. And as far as my own state, New Mexico, goes, we not only stayed blue ๐ต, but we elected the first Native American woman ♀︎ as governor in American history ๐บ๐ธ. Not just the first Native American as governor in American history ๐บ๐ธ, but the the first Native American woman ♀︎ as governor in American history ๐บ๐ธ. Democrats, and pretty anyone around the world opposed to Trump and the Republicans (or just the right-wing in general) are on a victory lap right now. Just as the Republicans, and pretty much every right-wing person and authoritarian despot around the world, was when Trump got reelected in 2024.
Not only that but Godzilla Day was on the same day, although this is obviously not a Godzilla related post, or it's not supposed to be. I don't even know if there even is an official Gamera Day like there is an official Godzilla Day. I doubt it because Gamera isn't anywhere near as popular as Godzilla. He's always been in Godzilla's shadow, and the franchise has always trailed behind the Godzilla franchise in terms of popularity and pop culture relevancy. Sure there was that brief time in the Shลwa era where the Gamera franchise was outcompeting the Godzilla franchise, which lead to the pivot of the Godzilla franchise becoming more kiddie in the late 1960s and early-to-mid 1970s. But besides that, Gamera's always been behind Godzilla, especially nowadays. There aren't even as many Gamera movies as there are Godzilla movies, there way more Godzilla movies than there are Gamera movies, especially at this point in 2026.
We're at a point now where we're pretty much getting a new Godzilla movie every year, or every two years, since the Minus movies and the MonsterVerse movies have been released one year apart with each other, Minus One being released the year before The New Empire, and Minus Zero being released the year before Supernova. Meanwhile, there hasn't been a new Gamera movie since Gamera the Brave, and that movie came out 20 years ago now. The Gamera: Rebirth series was the biggest, most high profile thing to come out of the Gamera franchise, and it wasn't even that good, at least not to me. But that was a series, not a movie. As far as movies go, there hasn't been a new Gamera movie. There a false hope that the 50th anniversary short film in 2015 was the lead-up to a full-on Gamera feature film, the first one in 9 years at that point, but then Kadokowa, the company that currently owns the Gamera franchise, crushed that hope by saying that the short that they showcased at the 2015 New York Comic Con was just to celebrate the 50th anniversary, and they had no plans of making a new feature length Gamera movie. No matter how positively that short was received, no matter how much fans wanted a new Gamera movie and demanded it after seeing that short.
But, if Kadokawa isn't willing to make a new Gamera feature film, why not an American studio ๐บ๐ธ? And that's the main question that I wish to answer and examine in this post, why hasn't there been American Gamera movie ๐บ๐ธ yet? Because that is a question worth examining, why hasn't there been one ๐ค? Given how popular the kaiju genre has become in recent years, with Pacific Rim, the MonsterVerse, Shin Godzilla, Kaiju No. 8, and of course the two Minus movies, you'd think that some American studio ๐บ๐ธ out there would try to get the rights from Kadokawa to make a Gamera movie to compete and have a kaiju franchise of their own. Even back in the 1990s, when the Godzilla movie was being developed at Tri-Star after they bought the rights to make a Godzilla movie of their own, why wasn't there some scrabble by a rival studio to acquire the film rights to make a Gamera movie to compete with that Godzilla movie that was developed at Tri-Star under Sony?
Well, I think it's mainly due to the lack of popularity that I talked about earlier. The Guardian of the Universe has never been nearly as popular as the King of the Monsters, and yes, I do like calling Gamera the guardian of the universe. I think that's a way better title for him than the "Friend of All Children," and plenty of Gamera fans would probably agree with me since, the name, "Guardian of the Universe" comes from the Heisei trilogy, and the Heisei trilogy are by far the most beloved and acclaimed films in the entire Gamera franchise. They're pretty much the gold standard. So there is a little bit of attachment to that name than there is for the name, the Friend of All Children, which does kind of sound a bit creepy.
People have made plenty of pedophile jokes in relation to Gamera, that Gamera's a pedophile, over the years because of that moniker. Also, it's a painful remainder that besides the Heisei trilogy, the Gamera franchise is mostly a children's franchise, and most of the Gamera movies are in fact made for children. A lot of people, including many Gamera fans want the franchise to be a big boy ♂︎ franchise and be taken seriously as a grown up franchise like Godzilla is. If anything, people like the character more than they do most of his movies. When Gamera is in any other context besides his movies, people love him, and they want to see more of him. But most importantly, they want to see him in more good movies.
So not only Gamera less popular than Godzilla, as I've said earlier, but it's not taken nearly as seriously as the Godzilla franchise. No Gamera movie has been nominated or won any awards like some of the Godzilla movies have over the years, most notably Minus One, which became the first Godzilla movie to win an Oscar in any category. At least to my knowledge, if you're a hardcore Gamera fan and you're reading this, please let me know if any Gamera movies have been nominated or won any awards. If any Gamera movies got nominated for anything, it would probably be the Heisei trilogy films because those are by far the most critically acclaimed out of all of them. And for those reasons, American studios ๐บ๐ธ might look at that, and decide that a Gamera movie isn't worth investing in. There just isn't enough of an audience to justify pouring the hundreds of millions of dollars ๐ต it would take to make one. And studios at the end of the day want to make money ๐ต.
Filmmaking is as much a business as it is an art, in fact, it's a lot more of a business than it is an art if we're going to be truly honest. At least when it comes to pure studio filmmaking. But even indie filmmaking is a business too because while indie filmmakers make their movies out of passion and true appreciation for the craft, the distributors that end up buying the distribution rights to those indie movies want to make money ๐ต, and get a return on their investment by putting in theaters, or on streaming, or on physical media. I mean, do you think Harvey Weinstein distributed and even directly financed all of those indie movies in the 1990s through Miramax out of the kindness of his heart? No, he wanted to make money ๐ต, and also assault women ♀︎, but that's beside the point. Artisan Entertainment was a purely for profit venture started by a bunch of investors through an private investment firm founded by Mitt Romney called Bain Capital. People who had no real ties to the film industry, people who had no real passion for the craft, or any true desire to make great films that truly stand the test of time.
They just saw it as a way to get rich ๐ค, or in their case, even richer ๐ค since the kind of people own and operate an investment firm or private equity firm like that are pretty rich motherfuckers ๐ค. Filthy rich people ๐ค, like truly wealthy people ๐ค who have more money ๐ต than they truly know what to do with. People who are that rich ๐ค, who have more than enough to not only get by and survive, but thrive and live pretty comfortably (their kids and grandkids never have to work a day in their lives), only have a desire to make more. Because enough is never enough for them. No amount of money ๐ต will ever truly satisfy them, they just want to make more, even when they clearly don't have to. That's why, even though Elon Musk briefly became the world's first trillionaire, or still is, or is on the path to, I don't know, and is the richest man in the world ๐ค♂︎, at least on paper, he still wants more. It's a weird psychology thing that happens with a lot of rich people ๐ค that doesn't happen with any other class of people. Not poor people, not working class people, not middle people, not even moderately rich people ๐ค. Only the super rich ๐ค, the top 1%.
But even the filmmakers themselves do want to make money ๐ต off of their own work, to put food on the table and pay all their bills, all their utilities, and also all their subscriptions, since virtually everything in this world has been turned into a subscription service. Even fridges, even some fridges have some subscription services attached to them, though that could just be a fake Internet rumor ๐ I'm not sure. But I won't be surprised if that was the case. Even if a lot of times, indie filmmakers don't get paid what they are owed, especially if they make their movie through a major studio, and it's not completely self-financed. The best a lot of them can often hope for is if the movie gets a theatrical release, that they'll get a cut of the gross, or the movie gets released on physical media, they'll get a cut of the profits. But streaming has made that more difficult since there isn't a direct revenue stream (no pun intended) from the distributor to the filmmaker in streaming. It's not even clear how streaming movies and shows movies even make money ๐ต, how we can measure their success or failure, especially if they only ever stay on streaming and don't go to theaters or physical media, where we can measure box office gross or sales (as in, the number copies sold).
I guarantee you that are indie filmmakers who are living paycheck-to-paycheck, who may be on SNAP benefits, or may have take on a "real" job besides their true passion which is to make movies, just to make ends meet. I know there are screenwriters who live like that unfortunately. Gone are the days when a screenwriter could get paid millions of dollars ๐ต for writing a single spec script. Shane Black and a lot of those other old school screenwriters got in the business at the right time when studios would literally enter bidding wars with each other to buy a single spec script from a young and up-and-coming screenwriter. A lot of them became millionaires because they were born and came of age at the right time when they could make millions off of their writing. That time has passed, and the current generation of screenwriters is lucky if they make enough to keep the lights on or pay their rent.
If a studio doesn't think that they'll make a money ๐ต on a project, then they won't greenlight it and they won't fund it, and I think that's been the biggest obstacle to an American Gamera movie ๐บ๐ธ ever getting made. They just don't think it's worth it because of unpopular the franchise is. How little presence it truly has in its zeitgeist. Less Americans ๐บ๐ธ know about Gamera than they do Godzilla. But more Americans ๐บ๐ธ know about Gamera than they do Ultraman. So there is that ๐คท♂️. The awareness just isn't there. It's the main reason why so many Lovecraft adaptations haven't gotten off the ground, and Lovecraft adaptations are so few and far between and are mostly relegated to the indie scene, because studios are convinced there just isn't enough of an audience to make one and spend potentially hundreds of millions of dollars ๐ต on it. Guillermo del Toro tried to make an At the Mountains of Madness movie in 3D starring Tom Cruise with a budget of at least $130 million ๐ต and Universal balked at that, and refused to greenlight it.
But, there have been movies based on more obscure or niche IP that somehow got greenlit and got funded, getting pretty decent budgets. I mean, someone thought it was a good idea to make a Bloodshot ๐ฉธ movie with Vin Diesel that cost $45 million ๐ต, even though that's an obscure comic book series that most people haven't heard of, let alone read. That movie actually cost a lot less than that I thought, I thought it cost somewhere in the $100 million ๐ต range, but no, it only cost $45 million ๐ต. Still, it was a risky move, and it didn't pay off. I mean, that movie was supposed to kick off a franchise, a whole entire Valiant Comics cinematic universe, and it didn't work. It failed big time. That's why that movie was a one-off, and there hasn't been a sequel, or any other Valiant Comics adaptations. I think Vin Diesel knows that movie was a complete failure, and has completely walked away from it, never mentioning it again.
And then of course, 20th Century Fox (before they merged with Disney) made an Alita: Battle Angel movie that cost $150–200 million ๐ต, though that was more of a passion project by James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez, and not a purely studio driven thing. Same goes for Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, which was also based off an IP that wasn't well known, at least in the United States ๐บ๐ธ. Maybe a better example would be Flash Gordon (1980), Dick Tracy (1990), Speed Racer (2008), or Astro Boy ♂︎ (2009). The Adventures of Tintin is definitely a good example, most of Americans ๐บ๐ธ, and most people of my generation, hadn't even heard of Tintin, let alone read any of the comics. And my generation was the main demographic for that movie when it came out.
Maybe Mortal Engines would a better example than that because that was based on a book ๐ (a YA novel ๐) that was somewhat obscure, certainly not as well known as Harry Potter, or Twilight, or The Hunger Games, or Percy Jackson, or Divergent, or even Maze Runner and it was given a massive budget of $100–150 million ๐ต, and it was supposed to kick off a franchise. And it flopped hard, making only $85.5 million ๐ต, ouch ๐ฌ. But a lot of these cases only happened because they were passion projects by the filmmakers that made them, and they had enough clout to actually make it happen and get the funding they needed from the major studios. So, there is still a possible that a Gamera movie could happen, even if it is a bit slim. If it happens, a good chance is that it'll happen because of a passionate filmmaker with a lot of money ๐ต and power wanted to make it, rather than because a studio wanted to compete with Legendary and make their own kaiju-based franchise.
So, on the off-chance there ever is an American Gamera movie ๐บ๐ธ, what should it be like? I would like to first address the question of whether or not Gamera should just be apart of the MonsterVerse or not? Because that has been a real suggestion by fans (not just MonsterVerse fans or kaiju fans but Gamera fans specifically), and I think it is worth examining and taking into consideration when discussing this topic. Despite the amazing fan art I've seen of what Gamera might look like if he were in the MonsterVerse by the artist, eatalllot on DeviantART, I don't think he should be in the MonsterVerse. I think Gamera should be its own separate thing and he should have his own separate franchise without being tied to the MonsterVerse. Not every kaiju, old and established or new and original, needs to be apart of the MonsterVerse. Like Ultraman and Pacific Rim don't need to be apart of the MonsterVerse, even though that same fan art that I mentioned earlier by eatalllot has Ultraman and Gipsy Danger on it.
The movie grossed $411 million ๐ต worldwide, and $136 million ๐ต of that was made in China ๐จ๐ณ. It definitely helped that the movie not featured a Chinese Jaeger ๐จ๐ณ, Crimson Typhoon, but also has an entire scene, an entire section of the movie set in Hong Kong ๐ญ๐ฐ. So just like Alita: Battle Angel after it, Pacific Rim was a movie that was saved by China ๐จ๐ณ, even if Alita didn't get a sequel like Pacific Rim did. Though that has less to do with the box office, and more to do with the fact that the studio that made it changed hands.
20th Century Fox was bought out by Disney through a merger with its parent company, 21st Century Fox, which actually held the rights to all of Fox's film and TV assets, and it ceased being a separate independent entity. And the new owners, Disney, weren't too keen on continuing Alita and making it a franchise since it doesn't have that much appeal in the United States ๐บ๐ธ, and it was really just a passion project by James Cameron. A passion project that he was too busy to focus on, since he was putting all his focus and work into the Avatar sequels. Still is, even if Avatar: Fire and Ash ๐ฅ made less than both of its predecessors. Though judging by the reaction to the sequel, a lot of people would say that Pacific Rim was better off without a sequel, and are in denial that there even was a sequel. And it was for the best that Alita never got a sequel.
The second image is of Gamera himself, represented in the MonsterVerse art style, the sensibility in which the MonsterVerse kaiju, or Titans as they're called were designed. Though that sensibility has changed since both of these images were drawn and then colored in the same of the second image, since they've moved away from groundness in favor of wacky and out there. They're less concerned with trying to make the monsters look realistic, or making them more grounded, which is what they tried to do early on with Godzilla (2014), and more concerned about just making them look cool. Because none of the original monsters or even the Toho monsters they've introduced since Godzilla (2014) and Kong: Skull Island look anything like the MonsterVerse sensibility back when Godzilla (2014) and Kong: Skull Island were the only two MonsterVerse movies.
I definitely wouldn't say Skar King and Shimo are grounded, or even Tiamat, her daughter Lahamu, Behemoth, Scylla, the Warbats, the Volt Panthers, and the Sporeflies. Though the Warbats, Volt Panthers, and Scarabs are categorized as "superspecies" rather than "Titans," they have Titan-sized variants, like the Alpha Warbat, the Stormlord Volt Panther, and the Sporefly Empress. No one would've such monsters would be introduced in the MonsterVerse after watching Godzilla (2014) and seeing the grounded approach that movie went with. But this design for Gamera is pretty good. If he was added to the MonsterVerse, despite me not really thinking he should, and he looked like this, I would totally accept it. I used the colored version because that was the only one that had an actual download link ๐ and was big enough size to be worth downloading.
The original black and white image did not have download link ๐ and wasn't able to be Saved As in a large enough size to justify even saving as. But he does look pretty cool in color. I do like how the design of the face and beak specifically was clearly influenced by snapping turtles, particularly Alligator snapping turtles, the largest snapping turtle species and the largest freshwater turtle species in North America. And I do like how he has trees ๐ณ and vegetation growing on his shell, that's a pretty nice detail. Even if all of that would be lost in a fight, especially in a fight with Godzilla. Godzilla would just burn off all the trees ๐ณ and vegetation growing on his shell with his atomic breath ☢️ alone. I'll leave a link ๐ to eatalllot's page right here.)
Even if Gamera being apart of the MonsterVerse would be the only way that a Godzilla vs. Gamera movie would actually happen. Toho and Daiei tried to come to a deal in the past to make a Godzilla vs. Gamera movie, but nothing came of it, they weren't able to come to an agreement to either work together on the project or license their respective character out to the other company to make the movie, and then Toho and Kadokawa (the current owner of the Gamera franchise) seemingly have had no talks about making a Godzilla vs. Gamera movie. The was the only time Godzilla and Gamera have been in the same piece of media together in an official capacity was the 2017 Japan exclusive ๐ฏ๐ต PS4 exclusive survival game, City Shrouded in Shadow (AKA Kyoei Toshi in Japanese ๐ฏ๐ต), but even then, they didn't interact with each other, let alone fight each other.
They were in separate scenarios, broken up into 17 different levels, with Gamera and the other characters in his franchise were in Levels 2, 10, and 16, while Godzilla and the other characters in his franchises were in Levels 3, 6, 8, and 13. And they weren't the only characters that were included in the game, as other characters from other franchises were included in the game, including ones from Evangelion, Ultraman, and Patlabor. The Evangelion characters that were featured in the game were from the Rebuild part of the franchise. This game tried to include as much IP (intellectual property) as possible, just like Ready Player One or Space Jam: A New Legacy. But as far as movies go, Godzilla and Gamera have been in the same movie together, and they have never fought on screen. The only time they've fought is in fanmade projects, which are of course unofficial and therefore not legitimate. Doesn't mean they don't have merit, it's just as far as the official canon (or canons since there's multiple continuities of those two franchises go, and as far as the studios that own them are concerned, they don't count.
So, the only way we could get Godzilla and Gamera to fight in an official capacity is in Legendary acquired the rights to Gamera, like they got an official license to use the character from Kadokawa, and put him in the MonsterVerse. After all, that's the only Godzilla vs. Kong happened. Toho did try to make another King Kong vs. Godzilla or Godzilla vs. King Kong movie in the years after King Kong vs. Godzilla came out in 1962. But they were unsuccessful, and it was only after Legendary and the producers of the MonsterVerse decided to put that King Kong movie that was originally being developed at Universal by Peter Jackson (it was originally envisioned as a sequel, or a prequel to his 2005 remake of the original 1933 King Kong movie) in the MonsterVerse and reshape into the King Kong movie that we know today, Kong: Skull Island, that a Godzilla vs. King Kong movie, or rather Godzilla vs. Kong movie finally got made after 59 years. Or rather 57 years since the movie was filmed in 2019 and was supposed to come out in 2020, but ended up coming out in 2021 instead due to the pandemic ๐ฆ ๐ท. Legendary the ones to make it happen when Toho had failed to follow their 1962 classic with either a direct sequel in the Shลwa era or a reboot during the Heisei era. It was even directed by the guy ♂︎ who was going to direct the King Kong sequel/prequel that Peter Jackson was working on, Adam Wingard.
It became the new event that the MonsterVerse was leading up to, and indeed it was the culmination of everything the MonsterVerse had done up to that point. And not only did it deliver on its core premise of having Godzilla and Kong fight, and satisfy fans and audiences, and even some critics (though plenty of them still gave it negative reviews just as they did King of the Monsters (2019)), but it changed the course of the MonsterVerse forever, since pretty much every movie from then on out would be a Godzilla and Kong movie and have the title, Godzilla x Kong. Even other pieces of MonsterVerse media like the comics and at least one of the video games, are also Godzilla and Kong and have that moniker of Godzilla x Kong. Though in the case of the crossover with the Justice League and DC universe, it was called Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong, and then the sequel was called Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong 2.
But Titan Chasers, the recent mobile game I mentioned earlier does carry the title, Godzilla x Kong and does feature both characters. And then that ride in South Korea ๐ฐ๐ท is also called Godzilla x Kong, kind of, it's actually called Kong x Godzilla for some reason, I don't know why they switched it around, when it's usually Godzilla x Kong. Like the Godzilla ride that I talked about earlier, Godzilla the Ride: Giant Monsters Ultimate Battle, I heard that Kong x Godzilla: The Ride might contain spoilers for Supernova, so I'll avoid reading any plot summaries or watching any footage from the ride until I see Supernova for myself. I definitely won't get the chance to actually ride the ride for myself since I live in the United States ๐บ๐ธ and the ride's in South Korea ๐ฐ๐ท, and there no chance in the hell that I'll be going to South Korea ๐ฐ๐ท anytime soon.
I don't have the money ๐ต, and I don't speak the language anyway. I'd be completely lost. Maybe if I were to meet Emily from Emirichu while she was visiting there to see her parents (who moved back to South Korea ๐ฐ๐ท after their American born children ๐บ๐ธ, including Emily, all grew up) I'd have an easier chance, but besides that, no. The only places I'd be able to travel to is in the United States ๐บ๐ธ, including Hawai'i, which is a lot of people forget is an American state ๐บ๐ธ. BTW, the only states I've been to outside of New Mexico are Arizona and Colorado, and even then, I've only been one place in both states. I've only been to Chinle in Arizona and I've been to Durango in Colorado. I still wonder when we're actually going to get a full trailer to that movie. All we have to go off of is that announcement trailer from last year. I'm hoping that we get at least a teaser trailer by the end of this year, which is just one month away now.
I do think that Gamera would fit. They'd find a way to make him fit in the MonsterVerse with the already established lore, even if the lore has contradicted itself here and there, thought not to same degree MCU. Every shared universe will contradict itself at some point whenever new movies get made, or pieces of related media like comic books or video games, even one considered as airtight as the MCU. It's kind of avoidable the more it expands and the more artists, writers, and filmmakers are brought in to make their creative contributions. And those artists, writers, and filmmakers may have the same vision as the filmmakers and producers who started it. They might have their own ideas, and may just see this shared universe as a way to express those ideas since they couldn't do it their own original work. But I still don’t think Gamera should be apart of the MonsterVerse, and should have his own separate franchise. Gamera has enough of a mythology and rogues gallery of his own that it could sustain a franchise on its own without being apart of an already existing shared universe. Even if it would admittedly be cool if he was apart of the MonsterVerse, and it would be cool to see him finally fight Godzilla after so many years.
One of the reasons why Godzilla vs. Kong is beloved and why it made so much money ๐ต and why it still holds a special place in the hearts of fans despite its flaws, is the novelty of seeing Godzilla and Kong in the same movie together, fight each other again after so long. These two iconic movie monsters duking it out with each other. No body ever thought there would ever another Godzilla vs. King Kong movie after the original King Kong vs. Godzilla in 1962, but we did get one and it was worth it. Even if the rest of the movie may not fully work, at least it fully delivers on the fight between Godzilla and Kong. Both of them, since the movie has two main fights between Godzilla and Kong, with the first one ending indecisively with the two of them walking away from the fight without a clear winner, and then the second ending with Godzilla winning pretty decisively, and almost killing Kong. Kong would have died if it weren’t for Nathan, Ilene, and Jia reviving him by using the HEAV as a giant defibrillator. Rest in peace Kaylee Hottle, you were taken away so young and you should’ve lived a longer life ๐.
Though, I think Gamera would be a much tougher opponent for Godzilla than Kong because Gamera has actual powers, and had powers that rival that of Godzilla. In the Heisei trilogy, he got his power from Mana, the life force or spiritual energy of all human beings. And while Gamera’s no where near as durable as Godzilla, he’s still a lot more durable than Kong. He’s not going go into cardiac arrest after losing a fight to Godzilla, if he loses. But I feel like if there was a Godzilla vs. Gamera movie, especially one that was set in the MonsterVerse, people would just make jokes and boil it down to just being about a giant lizard fighting a giant turtle. Just to make it seem like the stupidest thing imaginable People did this with Godzilla vs. Kong and The New Empire, and they'll probably do it again with Supernova, where they said that they were just about a giant lizard fighting a giant monkey.
Even though Kong isn't a monkey, he's an ape. This is bigger problem than just Kong, it's with every conversation involving primates. People use the words "monkey" and "ape" interchangeably even though they shouldn't. Monkeys ๐ and apes are two totally different things. Godzilla of course isn't even a lizard either (not even in the 1998 movie contrary to popular belief), so calling him a lizard is inaccurate. It's just one of those things where people call any reptile that isn't a snake ๐ or a turtle ๐ข a lizard even they shouldn't. Lizards ๐ฆ are just one group of reptiles, and not every reptile that isn't a snake ๐ or a turtle ๐ข is a lizard ๐ฆ. Like Tuataras look a lot like lizards ๐ฆ, but they're completely separate group of reptiles.
And of course, people aren't biologists, or paleontologists, or hardcore dinosaur enthusiasts call dinosaurs "lizards" (their name literally means "terrible lizard," or "terrible lizards" plural if we're talking about dinosaurs as a whole and not just and individual or an individual species, in Greek ๐ฌ๐ท) even though they're as far away from being lizards as you can possibly get. They're more closely related to birds ๐ฆ than they are to lizards, in fact, birds ๐ฆ are a type of dinosaur, and birds ๐ฆ are a type of reptile. We don't usually think of them as being reptiles, but they are. If dinosaurs are reptiles, then birds ๐ฆ are reptiles too because birds ๐ฆ are dinosaurs. Godzilla has been a dinosaur in most iterations, and his design was directly inspired by both a T. rex and a Stegosaurus (essentially combining the two), but the MonsterVerse Godzilla isn't a dinosaur.
He's a different kind of prehistoric reptile, which is possible because dinosaurs weren't the only prehistoric reptiles. His species originated from Hollow Earth ๐, as did all the Titans, so really does it really matter? They just took this fictional character and made him an even more fictional species than he was before. Getting as far from reality as possible. And isn't even considering the fact that Gamera isn't just a turtle ๐ข. He's a turtle ๐ข that can fly by shooting rocket jets out of his shell, and he can spin his bodies really fast and fly around like a flying saucer to accelerate. So for now, if we want to see Godzilla and Gamera fight, we’ll just have to stick to fan made projects, if they don’t get copyright claimed, flagged, and removed ๐. Including the Death Battles video, even though not everyone agrees with the result, but that’s every Death Battles video pretty much. Trust me, there are way more videos responding to Death Battles, disputing the results or just criticizing the fight itself, than are actual Death Battle videos.
So if not the MonsterVerse, what should this American Gamera movie ๐บ๐ธ be like, who should write it, who should direct it, and which studio should make it or distribute it? I'll start with the studio question first because it's kind of the easiest one out of the two in that I don't really have a clear straightforward answer. I don't know which studio should make or distribute the movie. I used to think Paramount, home of Top Gun, Transformers, G.I. Joe, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ๐ฅท๐ข (I was mostly thinking of Paramount because they own the film and TV rights to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ๐ฅท๐ข and it would be perfect for them to have another franchise with a turtle character ๐ข), but ever since the merger with Skydance and now the merger with Warner Bros., Paramount's a no-go. Netflix is also a no-go, I would not want Netflix to make a Gamera movie because I would want it to go to theaters, and plus they made that Gamera anime that wasn't very good (at least in my opinion). I don't trust them with the property to do a good job.
I also wouldn't want it to go to Disney, even Disney of the studios I've mentioned so far, they're the lesser of the three evils compared to Paramount and Netflix. Maybe Lionsgate, or Universal. If it went to Universal, then it would potentially open the door to it becoming apart of the MonsterVerse, especially if Legendary decides to change distributors after the Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. merger, which I guess has already happened or is in the process of happening, I'm not sure, but I hate it and it's pretty bad. They've already gone with Universal as an international distributor, Universal will now distribute the MonsterVerse movies in international markets, so it wouldn't be that much of a leap to have Universal be the distributor for the MonsterVerse domestically too. I mean, if Christopher Nolan was willing to abandon the sinking ship that was Warner Bros. (and that was before the merger with Paramount Skydance), then who's to say Legendary won't do the same with the MonsterVerse? Because you have to remember, Warner Bros. has no creative control over the MonsterVerse, it's all Legendary, they have all the creative control. Warner Bros. was just a distributor. And as a distributor, they are 100% expendable and replaceable.
I would've said 20th Century Fox if it was still was around and hadn't merged with Disney and become a subsidiary of Disney. I could see a Gamera movie being distributed by 20th Century Fox back in the day, after all they were the ones that made Alita: Battle Angel, the live action anime/manga adaptation that was James Cameron's little passion project and the whole reason he made Avatar (2009) in the first place, so he could have the technology necessary to make Alita (only for him to end up focusing on Avatar instead after the first movie made $2 billion ๐ต and hire Robert Rodriguez to direct Alita in his stead ๐), and they were the ones that were going to make the live action Cowboy Bebop movie with Keanu Reeves (and possibly Bruce Willis) before it was canceled for unknown reasons. Likely due to the fan backlash and accusations of whitewashing by casting Keanu Reeves as the main character, Spike Spiegel, a character who a lot of people evidently think should be played by an Asian actor.
Even though Spiegel isn't an Asian last name, it's Jewish last name ✡️, and there's nothing about Spike as a character to suggest that he has to be played by an Asian actor other than he's a character in a Japanese anime ๐ฏ๐ต, he spoke Japanese ๐ฏ๐ต originally in the original Japanese version of the 1998 anime, and also maybe because he's a member of the Red Dragon Syndicate ๐ and he fights like Bruce Lee and quotes Bruce Lee. And it would be amusing that Gamera was in the same home as Alien and Predator, who of course had their own crossover in the 2000s, Alien vs. Predator (2004) and its sequel, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, which came out 3 years later in 2007. Another reason 2007 was a peak year for movies and entertainment in general. But if an American Gamera movie ๐บ๐ธ did get made at 20th Century Fox, and if 20th Century Fox still ended up merging with Disney (thanks to Bob Iger ๐), it would've just gone to Disney anyway. So it still wouldn't be a viable option. The only way I'd be okay with 20th Century Fox made a Gamera movie is if Disney never merged with it at all and just left it the hell alone. If Bob Iger kept his grubby little hands ๐คฒ off it ๐ค.
Maybe, A24. Can you imagine if A24 made a Gamera movie? It would easily be the most expensive movie A24 ever made, and depending on what kind of movie it ended up being, if it was a big budget "dumb fun" blockbuster or some prestigious artsy-fartsy arthouse movie, people would use it as a sign of A24's decline as a company. People have already done that with Y2K (2024), Onslaught (2026), and other movies that don't fit the mold of what people (especially critics and general film snobs) think an A24 movie should be like. If the Minus movies weren't Japanese movies ๐ฏ๐ต made by Toho and distributed in the US ๐บ๐ธ by GKIDS (although Minus One was distributed by Toho International), I could easily see them being made by A24. They definitely fit the A24 aesthetic, they're very much the kind of movies A24 would make and would brag about, and people would accept from them.
That's why A24's the perfect studio to make the Death Stranding movie, it's definitely in line with the kind of movies that A24 likes to make and has built their reputation on because from what I've heard, the Death Stranding games are pretty pretentious. They not only try to be cinematic and be "more than just a video game" (because Hideo Kojima isn't interested in making games, he's more interested in making movies, he wants to be a filmmaker but he's stuck making video games, which is he tries to make his games as much like movies as reasonably possible) but they also explore all these "deep" themes and seem a lot more important than they actually are ๐. But considering the Death Stranding games are already expensive games, both having pretty huge budgets, though they've never disclosed, and considering what happens in them and who's them (they'd have to have big budgets considering how many celebrities they got to be in the games), I don't know they'd be able to make a Death Stranding movie without a huge budget. At the time of me writing this, the most expensive movie A24 has ever produced is none other than Alex Garland's Civil War ๐บ๐ธ (2024), which had a budget of $50 million ๐ต, which is still considered a mid budget in the film world.
A Death Stranding movie, I'd think would have to do cost twice that much. I'm not good at math, but I imagine the budget for a Death Stranding movie would have to be at least $90 million ๐ต. But a bigger budget comes with a bigger risk, since A24 movies don't typically make enough money ๐ต for a movie costing $100 million ๐ต or more to be profitable. So I don't know. But Death Stranding is definitely the perfect video game for A24 to adapt into a movie because it fits in line with the kind of movies A24 usually likes to make and people expect from them. But, if the Gamera movie was more like a MonsterVerse-style blockbuster meant to appeal to kaiju fans (maybe even specifically MonsterVerse fans) and general moviegoers and be a bit more about spectacle than story or characters, people would reject it and say that A24 is going downhill.
Can imagine if it ended up going to Sony, the original stomping ground for an American Godzilla ๐บ๐ธ? The very first American Godzilla movie ๐บ๐ธ, Godzilla (1998) was made at Sony, which is ironically a Japanese company ๐ฏ๐ต, but the movie was made by the American side of the company ๐บ๐ธ. And the company owns the North American distribution rights to 5 of the Shลwa era Godzilla films (those being Ebirah, Horror of the Deep ๐ฆ AKA Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster, Son of Godzilla, Godzilla vs. Hedorah, Godzilla vs. Gigan, and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)), all of the Heisei era films except for Godzilla (1984) and Godzilla vs. Biollante, and all of the Millennium era films. It was also the studio in-which the original 1961 Mothra movie was distributed in the United States ๐บ๐ธ, Columbia Pictures is owned by Sony, though it wasn't when Mothra (1961) came out. But since Columbia is owned by Sony, they in turn own the North American distribution rights to Mothra (1961).
And they own the North American distribution rights to the entire Rebirth of Mothra trilogy, though that of course was through a separate deal than the one they made to get the distribution rights to Mothra (1961) back in the 1960s. So it would be pretty funny if the company that made the first attempt at an American Godzilla movie ๐บ๐ธ and franchise, since they did try to turn Godzilla (1998) into a franchise. Although it ended up being a lot smaller than they were anticipating due to the negative reception to the movie from critics and fans, only consisting of the animated series, Godzilla: The Series (which people like more than the 1998 movie) and a few tie-in video games, which were mostly tied to the animated series. And owns the distribution rights to several of the original Toho Godzilla films, and even all the Mothra movies (since there have only been four Mothra solo movies, as in Mothra movies that are not tied to the Godzilla series, altogether), ended up making a Gamera movie.
Godzilla's #1 competitor in Japan ๐ฏ๐ต, and the character who people who think Godzilla should fight next after King Kong. And also maybe Ultraman. Either Columbia or Tri-Star, though I think Tri-Star would be best since Tri-Star was the label that Sony distributed Godzilla (1998) through. And also Godzilla 2000 when it was released in theaters in the United States ๐บ๐ธ. Pretty much all the Sony releases of the Godzilla movies that they have the distribution rights to use Tri-Star as their label of choice. I know a lot of people don't like Sony, mostly because of their Marvel stuff, but compared to the likes of Disney or Paramount Warner Skydance (whatever the combined company is even going to be called), they're the lesser evil. Like, I'd be more comfortable with Sony making a Gamera movie than Paramount so long as it's merged with Skydance and Warner Bros. and so long as the combined company is owned and controlled by the Ellisons ๐ .
As for who should direct it or write it, I really don't know who should direct it or write it. As long as it's someone who's at least knowledgeable of the Gamera franchise and has enough respect for it to do it justice. It doesn't have to be hardcore fan, but someone who's aware of the Gamera series and knows enough about it and has enough respect for it to do it justice. I don't know who's a Gamera fan in Hollywood or who in Hollywood knows enough about Gamera to actually do it justice, so I can't tell you. I can't name any names. I didn't know there were as many Godzilla fans in Hollywood or people who knew enough about Godzilla to do it justice until the MonsterVerse started. Like, who would've thought that Michael Dougherty and Adam Wingard would be the perfect guys ♂︎ to direct Godzilla movies and had enough love and respect for the franchise to include references and Easter eggs that only hardcore fans would notice and get a kick out of? I just don't know if there's anyone like that for Gamera in Hollywood. The only way to actually find out would be to put an American Gamera movie ๐บ๐ธ into production.
As for what I think an American Gamera movie ๐บ๐ธ should be like, my own personal wishlist or checklist, I would not want it to be a kid's movie. I would not want kids to be the protagonists. Being kid's movies and being focused on kids so much is why the Gamera franchise has the stigma that has. Stigma that it has only managed to break away from a couple of times. Really once ☝️ if I'm going to be completely honest. I'm not asking for an adult Gamera movie, you know, I'm not asking for an R rated Gamera movie, even if we do have an R rated Godzilla movie. But I am asking for a Gamera movie with adults as the protagonists, and for it to be at least rated PG-13 and not PG if you catch my drift. Like Gamera vs. Barugon or the entire Heisei trilogy. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in this. Every Gamera fan, or kaiju fan in general, who wants a Gamera movie and has openly asked for one, wants it to focus on adults rather than kids, and for it to be at least a movie for teenagers and adults. Like kids could watch it, if they wanted, if their parents let them, but it wouldn't be explicitly made with kids in mind.
Like, Godzilla (1998) and the MonsterVerse are not kid's movies, they were made explicitly with kids in mind, could kids could still watch them and many of them did or do, including myself. I first watched Godzilla (1998) as a kid, and it was my introduction to Godzilla as a whole. I have a lot of nostalgia for that film, as a lot of other people do as well. PG-13 is kind of an all-ages rating, where pretty anyone watch it, including little kids, even if it was originally created to be a middle ground between PG and R. More mature than PG but not as mature as R, "PG but with a little bit of spice" as Steven Spielberg put it since he had a hand in the rating's creation after parents complained about the violence and "explicit"/"inappropriate" content in the firs two Indiana Jones movies, particularly Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, which was darker and more violent than its predecessor. But since its creation, the PG-13 rating has become a safe rating for studios to gain as wide of an audience as possible to make as much money ๐ต as possible.
That's why every major blockbuster movie nowadays is rated PG-13, and why you see kids under the age of 13 going to see PG-13 movies even if they might have stuff in them that's too intense or "spicy" for them. Like, kids under the age of 13 still went to see all five of the Michael Bay Transformers movies, even if they do have pretty intense and even gruesome violence (even if most of it is done to robots) and feature strong adult language, profanity (Transformers: Age of Extinction even has one use of the F word at point, you know, "fuck"), and even sexual humor. Something those movies are often criticized for. People say that the Michael Bay Transformers movies are way too horny for movies based on a toyline meant for children, especially the second movie, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which has the most overtly sexual humor out of all of them. It's definitely the horniest one out of all of them.
So a PG-13 Gamera movie focused on adults as the protagonists would be acceptable. In fact, it would pretty much be the only option since I doubt a studio would greenlight a Gamera movie that's a kid's movie rated PG or an adult movie that's rated R. The only reason I think Minus Zero got away with being R rated is that it has the good name of Minus One backing it up. No one's going to question the guy ♂︎ that made Minus One, the most critically acclaimed Godzilla movie besides the original 1954 movie. Or at least, they're not going to push back or be too forceful with him since he's effectively Toho's golden boy ♂︎ right now. If Takashi Yamazaki didn't have Minus One on his rรฉsumรฉ and if it was such a huge successful and wasn't as critically acclaimed or award winning, he would not have gotten away with making Minus Zero R rated.
He would've been forced to trim it down and remove the scenes that made it R rated. They told him that they think the movie should be PG-13 (or whatever the equivalent rating is in Japan ๐ฏ๐ต), and they suggested that he remove those scenes, but they weren't forcing him to do it, it wasn't an all or nothing issue for them, and they pretty much backed down after Yamazaki said he wouldn't do it. So, Minus Zero only got to be R rated do to special set of circumstances and conditions that won't be repeated again outside of this specific series. Since it is being turned into a series now because these movies are too damn successful. They have to keep them going, and Yamazaki has to continue making them until the well runs dry and these movies inevitably start having diminishing returns.
I would also want Gamera to be a hero, and not a villain or an antagonist. Besides the first two movies, Gamera has always been a heroic monsters. Every movie in the Shลwa era and even the Heisei era and Millennium era is about Gamera saving the world from an evil monster that's threatening. Usually from outer space, Gamera fights a lot of alien monsters ๐ฝ. More so than even Godzilla, although most of the villain monsters in the Godzilla movies are aliens ๐ฝ or are at least from outer space in someway. Like SpaceGodzilla, he's not alien ๐ฝ, he's a clone, but he's from outer space. That's why he's called SpaceGodzilla. It's not like with Godzilla, where he's run the gambit between a hero, an antihero, or a full-on villain, you can kind of make him either one, depending on the story you're telling, Gamera has mostly been a hero, a pretty straightforward clear cut hero (unambiguously a hero), and you kind of have to make him a hero in your story. Otherwise, you'd kind of be going against the character and what he's all about.
That doesn't mean you still can't make him badass. The Heisei trilogy did a good job at keeping Gamera a hero while also making him badass, in fact, he just got more badass with each film in the trilogy, as the threats became greater and greater. To the point, where you get to the third movie, where Gamera is hardcore and just doesn't give a fuck anymore. He's not interested in playing nice, if you're a bad monster, and you're threatening the Earth ๐, if you’re threatening humanity, he will fuck you up and kill you. Like, he kills all the Gyaos in that movie in pretty gruesome ways, and then he kills Iris by blowing off his own arm, creating a fire version of it ๐ฅ and punching Iris in the chest so hard that he literally exploded ๐ฅ. By the third movie, he wasn't messing around, and he was definitely a monster you wouldn't want a mess with you. Like, the humans were lucky that Gamera kept fighting on their side even after they attacked him, and he literally had no incentive to keep fighting on their side. He was literally designed to protect humanity, since he was created by a human civilization. Of course, if you were to create a giant monster as a weapon, you’d want it to protect you and the rest of your species, humanity.
As for his origin, in pretty every incarnation, Gamera has been created by an ancient but highly advanced human civilization that no longer exists. Usually Atlantis. While the Shลwa era doesn't explicitly say that Gamera was created by Atlanteans in the very first movie (they just say he was a species that lived in Atlantis), the Heisei trilogy straight up says he was created by Atlanteans. Specifically as a weapon to defend them from the Gyaos. Gamera the Brave doesn't directly dive into Gamera's origin, and I'm not sure if Gamera: Rebirth ever did since I only watched the first two episodes. I would keep that origin for the most part. Maybe I'd have him be created by humans in the modern day using modern genetics ๐งฌ as a weapon to defend them from another monster, maybe even the Gyaos. Maybe you could have them create him based on the genome left behind by the Atlanteans, just to keep the Atlantis connection. Sort of like what the military does in Species (1995), where they created Sil based on a genome, a recipe essentially, sent down to Earth ๐ by some unknown alien race ๐ฝ. Only it'd be done with Atlanteans and not aliens ๐ฝ.
I'm not sure if I'd keep the psychic connection thing since that was something that was introduced in the Heisei trilogy as far as I know (I haven't seen the Shลwa era films, so maybe they also depicted Gamera having a psychic link with humans), and it's not really something you need to have. I guess you could have it to give Gamera a direct connection to one of the human characters, and to have a convenient way for the humans to summon Gamera whenever they need him to show up to take care of the villain monster of the movie. Just like what the humans do with Godzilla in Minus Zero after one of the human characters gets mutated and develops a psychic connection to Godzilla, or so I've heard. Speaking of the villain monsters, that begs the question, what other monsters besides Gamera should be in this American Gamera movie ๐บ๐ธ or franchise if it's successful enough to get a franchise? Since Gamera's a hero and not a villain monster, he has to have some other monster to fight. It's not going to just be him fighting the military. Godzilla's able to get away with that because he has been an antagonist in the past, there is a precedent for that. Whereas such a precedent doesn't really exist for Gamera besides the very first movie from 1965.
Obviously you have to have Gyaos in there to some degree, they're pretty Gamera's arch nemesis. They're his equivalent to King Ghidorah, and they've appeared in every iteration, or series/era of Gamera, including Rebirth. In his debut film, Gamera vs. Gyaos, he was just a singular monster, a singular opponent for Gamera. The Heisei trilogy was the one that introduced the idea of there being multiple Gyaos at a time, and there being swarms of Gyaos, including smaller ones and bigger Super Gyaos that are big enough to take on Gamera and be a real challenge for him. But, besides Gyaos, who is kind of a must if you're doing an American Gamera movie ๐บ๐ธ or American Gamera movie franchise ๐บ๐ธ, what about other legacy monsters from the Gamera franchise? Should it include Barugon? Or Guiron? Or Viras? Or Zigra? Or even Jiger? I could definitely see Barugon, Guiron, and maybe even Viras being added in since they're the most memorable monsters that Gamera has fought in the Shลwa era besides Gyaos. But Zigra and Jiger? They're kind of a long shot. I kind of doubt they'd go with either of them.
I mean, Barugon was in arguably the best Shลwa era Gamera movie, so you have to include him. A monster that shoots rainbows ๐ out of his back as his main weapon is too good to pass up. And then of course, there's the monsters introduced in the Heisei trilogy and the one Millennium era film, Legion, Iris, and Zedus. Legion would be cool, the Legion Queen is easily the coolest looking monster to come out of the Gamera franchise. There's a reason why she's included in a lot of Gamera fan projects, including the unmade/canceled Godzilla/Gamera crossover fan film, Godzilla: Zero Hour, which was to feature a mixture of Godzilla and Gamera monsters, including Gigan and Legion and possibly the Gyaos too judging by that one shot in the trailer, though it could also just been the Legion themselves. And Zedus would be a cool basic monster to start off with for a first film. Like if you didn't go with Barugon (out of fear he'd be too outlandish and silly), you could go with Zedus.
But I wouldn't want it to just be legacy monsters that already exist the Gamera franchise, I'd also like to see Gamera fight some original monsters too. It's always cool to get a new monster in an already established kaiju franchise, especially we don't get it that often. Especially not in Godzilla. The only reason why the MonsterVerse has so many original monsters is because it would be too expensive to include more Toho monsters than they already have. Toho pretty much forces Legendary to pay separately for each monster, especially if they aren't apart of the Big Five. That's why so far, the only Toho monsters that are in the MonsterVerse are the ones in the Big Five. Which is I hope the rumors about SpaceGodzilla being the main antagonist in Supernova are true since he'd be the first Toho monster outside of the Big Five to be included. Michael Dougherty famously wanted to include more Toho monsters like Anguirus, Gigan, and Biollante in King of the Monsters (2019), but the issue of price and Toho charging extra for any monster that isn't one of their precious Big Five came up, and so he had to populate the monster with mostly original monsters, which fans mostly welcomed. Especially since the original monsters looked pretty cool.
I don't know if Kadokawa would be as gung ho and strict as Toho and if they'd be more or less willing to pay ball with an American studio ๐บ๐ธ or about the same as Toho when it comes to licensing out their monsters. But in case they are, having Gamera mainly fight original monsters would be the worst thing in the world. I mean, he mostly fights new monsters in every movie he's in, and he usually never fights the same monster twice, besides Gyaos. It wasn't until Rebirth that they started bringing back more of these older monsters for Gamera to fight besides just Gyaos being the recurring villain monster for Gamera to fight. That is one strength that the Gamera franchise has over the Godzilla franchise. Most of the time, up until very recently, it's always been a new monster every movie, and the same monsters don't get recycled and reused, and thus each film feels a bit more unique.
An issue a lot of Godzilla movies have is that they all feel kind of samey. Even the lauded Minus movies, especially Minus Zero, which burrows a lot of elements from King of the Monsters (2019) including entire set pieces (though people will have you ๐ซตconvinced that it's somehow better ๐). And that's partially down to them, not just bringing back monsters they've used before, but using the same few monsters, the Big Five. The only monsters Godzilla usually gets to fight in official Godzilla media (either by Toho or Legendary) are Mothra, Rodan, King Ghidorah, and Mechagodzilla. And hardly any new monsters get introduced into the franchise anymore. Legendary's the only one that's actually introducing new monsters, but that's mostly out of necessity because of the legal issues, the legal boundaries in which they have to operate in. If they were allowed to use a lot more Toho monsters, or if they allowed to use all of them, they would just use them, and not even bother with original monsters.
But with Gamera, besides Gyaos obviously, it's always a new monster, and thus the franchise manages to stay fresh and not grow stale or stagnate. So more so than Godzilla, Gamera is more equipped or accustomed to introducing new monsters, and because Gamera's monsters have always been more outlandish and even silly, they have no pretense about making them realistic or grounded. They could make these new original monsters as weird or as silly they wanted. It would still work within the confines of the Gamera franchise. What might always work for Godzilla usually works perfectly for Gamera, because they're not as shackled by the idea of making them see grounded or realistic as Godzilla often is, and Gamera's monsters are a lot weirder and sillier than Godzilla's. Not as weird or as silly as Ultraman's, but definitely weirder and sillier than Godzilla's. They can just focus on making them look cool, without worrying if it's realistic or not. Like, if I was making a Gamera movie, I would tell the concept artists to go nuts with the designs for the enemy monster, or monsters, and don't worry if it's realistic or not. The more unrealistic and sillier the better.
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