For the first time, Godzilla will have a dedicated booth at the San Diego Comic-Con. The iconic kaiju is celebrating his 65th anniversary this year. His most recent cinematic adventure, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, released last month.
Godzilla has starred in 35 movies over the course of his 65 year career. Although he was not the first giant monster, Godzilla has remained the most endearing. While King Kong has starred in under 10 movies, Godzilla keeps coming back for more. Since appearing in 1954, the character has been portrayed in different roles, and battled against foes that would go on to become very popular as well, such as King Ghidorah and Mechagodzilla. It can be said that Godzilla changed the landscape for giant monsters in media forever. Without the original 1954 movie, it isn't likely fans would have gotten Rodan, Mothra, Gorgo, or even Ultraman. Simply put, it cannot be overstated how large of an impact the series has had on popular culture. Now, the King of the Monsters will be stomping his way to Comic-Con next month.
TOHO Studios, the company behind Godzilla, announced today it will be hosting a dedicated booth to the giant monster at San Diego Comic-Con 2019. A number of activities will be present for fans to engage in. First, there will be a green screen photo booth for "unique social posts" using #Godzilla65. There will be "a live mural painting" done by Godzilla artist Shinji Nishikawa. (Nishikawa designed a number of monsters in the franchise, such as Kiryu and Grand King Ghidorah.) TOHO will also be featuring the actual suit used in Godzilla 2000, along with props from throughout the movies. Fans will want to save some cash, because there will be SDCC exclusive products. There will also be "giveaways, photo opportunities and much more gargantuan fun", according to TOHO.
It appears Godzilla fans have a lot to look forward to. Getting to see the actual Godzilla 2000 suit and different movie props is a rare experience, because these things are typically contained to Japanese events. As for any film news, TOHO didn't tease anything in the press release. This isn't surprising, because TOHO isn't making any Godzilla movies until after the release of Godzilla vs. Kong. As for the upcoming MonsterVerse film, any announcements regarding it would be said by Warner Bros., though sadly the studio will reportedly be absent from Comic-Con this year.
TOHO has certainly made greater strides in recent history to be better connected with Godzilla fans outside Japan. The company recently launched the first ever dedicated English-language website on the series, and brought pop-up versions of its famous Godzilla store to the U.S. in various locations. Although Godzilla: King of the Monsters received lukewarm reviews from a number of critics, that hasn't stopped the overall franchise from flourishing. TOHO has big plans for Godzilla, so it will be very interesting to see what the kaiju is up to five years from now.
Source: TOHO
