The infamous American-made Godzilla movie from 1998 was supposed to launch a trilogy, but it never happened - and while there are multiple reasons for that, there were already plans in place for what that trilogy would entail. Directed by Roland Emmerich, Godzilla hit theaters in 1998 and was savaged by critics and Godzilla fans alike, ultimately leading to the trilogy's cancellation.

Produced by TriStar and distributed by Sony Pictures, Godzilla reimagined the King of the Monsters for American audiences. For the movie, Godzilla received his most substantial design ever. The film told the story of a giant creature created by radiation. It grew to enormous size - but was still well short of all previous versions - and attacked New York City, forcing the government and the military to come up with a way to stop him. After being hit with torpedoes, Godzilla was killed. However, the ending of the film set up a sequel by revealing that one of Godzilla's spawns still lives.

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This twist was never followed up on, and a sequel was never made, even though one was rumored for nearly 10 years later. A pair of sequels were actually planned, but they never moved forward and the 1998 Godzilla remains a standalone movie. Here's what Sony's Godzilla trilogy would have looked like, and why it never happened.

Godzilla 1998 Was Supposed To Launch A Trilogy

Godzilla 1998 Cropped Poster

To make Godzilla, Sony had to get the rights to the iconic character from Toho. The rights were acquired in 1992, and Sony's intention to release a trilogy of Godzilla movies was officially confirmed. Not all the terms of the agreement have been specified, but Sony reportedly had to pay an upfront fee of $400,000 for the rights to Godzilla and the monsters who appeared in his first 15 Toho films. Feeling that Godzilla would be a success, Sony purchased sequel rights from Toho for an additional $5 million (equivalent to over $9 million today). The condition for the sequel was that it had to be made within five years of the first film's release, otherwise the rights would revert back to Toho. Sony ultimately didn't make Godzilla 2, and as a result the rights expired in 2003.

What Godzilla 1998's Trilogy Would've Been About

Godzilla 1998

Godzilla ended with one of Godzilla's eggs surviving the conflict with the military. Its survival was clearly meant to set up a sequel and the rise of a new Godzilla. And that's exactly what would have happened in TriStar's Godzilla 2. A treatment written by Tab Murphy confirms this plot point, and reveals that after becoming a full-grown Godzilla, the creature would have returned with an entire pack of adolescent Godzillas and do battle with an insect-like monster in Australia.

Godzilla would also have developed an emotional attachment to Matthew Broderick's character from the first movie. 1998 Godzilla producer Dean Devlin has said that Godzilla 2 would be "remarkably different" from its predecessor, and that Godzilla 3 would "make a whole lot of sense" if Godzilla 2 did well (via SciFi Japan). Not much is known about where the third installment would have taken the franchise, especially since the second movie never went far at all. It's also been said that Sony wanted to use multiple monsters in the trilogy, and the initial deal for TriStar to use kaiju from Godzilla's first 15 movies suggests that they may have had an interest in using established Toho monsters.

Why Sony's Godzilla Trilogy Never Happened

Godzilla's reputation with fans and critics may suggest that Godzilla was an all-around disaster, but this was actually not the case. Despite all the negative reviews, Godzilla was a box office success at $379 million. That's only slightly less than Godzilla: King of the Monsters' worldwide box office gross of $386 million. It easily made enough to justify a sequel, but their plans for Godzilla 2 were complicated by other matters, such as the reception to the film. An abundance of negative reviews had the studio concerned that a sequel wouldn't be as profitable as the first movie. Emmerich and Devlin were expected to be involved in Godzilla 2, but both ultimately dropped out of the project over budget issues. With the negative reception, it's likely the studio wasn't willing to increase costs for the sequel given that the chances of one outperforming the first movie were low.

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Furthermore, the overall fan reaction to Godzilla hurt enthusiasm for Godzilla 2, so it was determined that Sony would hold off on a sequel. That being said, they weren't ready to give up on Godzilla that quickly. Their hope was that if they waited, they could distance themselves from the 1998 adaptation and start from scratch.  But with the rights expiring in 2003, this didn't work either, and plans for any sort of follow-up to Godzilla - whether it be a sequel or a reboot - were abandoned.

Godzilla's Failure Led To Two Movie Reboots

Godzilla 2014

Other attempts to reboot the Godzilla franchise have been made since the failure of the 1998 movie. Two months after it released, Toho began development on its first Godzilla movie since the character's heroic sacrifice in 1995's Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. Titled Godzilla 2000, the movie is considered to be the first in the "Millenium" series, which consisted of six installments. The reboot came about as a direct result of fan enthusiasm, which saw a significant resurgence after the American adaptation. The Godzilla fanbase was so disappointed that it resulted in a high degree of demand for Toho to revive the franchise. Godzilla 2000 updated Godzilla's look by giving him purple back spikes and red atomic breath, but remained true to the major aspects of Godzilla's design.

Years later, Legendary and Warner Bros. began working on a Godzilla movie of their own. Because of what happened with the 1998 film, fans had trepidation about a Godzilla movie made by Hollywood, and in a way the failure of 1998 Godzilla served as an example for what Legendary shouldn't do with Godzilla. Legendary made it clear early on that their intention was to stay close to the original Godzilla and avoid any comparison to the 1998 version - not to mention modernize the character while also laying the foundation for a much more expansive franchise. Thanks to Roland Emmerich's movie, Legendary understood that any significant deviations from Godzilla's traditional design would have a negative impact on the movie.

Godzilla's Movie Future Explained

Godzilla vs Kong banner

Legendary has created a shared cinematic universe for Godzilla and Kong, called the MonsterVerse. So far, it has three installments: Godzilla, Kong: Skull Island, and Godzilla: King of the Monsters. A fourth film, Godzilla vs. Kong, is the last confirmed movie on their slate, and is scheduled for a November 2020 release, though it was originally set to to hit theaters in March. King of the Monsters pulling in disappointing numbers at the box office is likely the explanation for the delay. The other MonsterVerse movies have been successful, so if Godzilla vs. Kong is able to do well, Warner Bros. may have the confidence to make more movies about Godzilla and his fellow Titans.

Toho has their own plans for the Japanese pop culture icon. Though Toho's Shin Godzilla was a success for the studio, they're starting over in the near future. Toho intends to use the MCU as a model for their Godzilla movies, which means they want a shared cinematic universe where Godzilla and other Toho monsters can have their own solo movies and appear in crossovers. Toho is currently calling it "World of Godzilla". However, none of these movies will be released until after 2021. The reason for the long wait is due to the terms of its deal with Legendary. Toho and Legendary can't make Godzilla movies in the same year. This makes sense, considering that it's in the best interests of both studios that their movies avoid competition with each other. So even if Legendary's MonsterVerse doesn't end up continuing after Godzilla vs. Kong, Godzilla still has a bright future on the big screen.

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