Given its widespread acclaim and remarkable box office performance despite having a small production budget, a Godzilla Minus One sequel seems like more of an inevitability at this point.
However, in the midst of Minus One's theatrical run, director Takashi Yamazaki was loathe to discuss any possibility of a sequel, however, after the film's Oscar nomination, even Yamazaki acknowledges that he'll be making a sequel at some point.
And in that inevitable sequel, it appears Yamazaki intends for Godzilla to engage in combat with another kaiju instead of tearing down Japanese cities.
Speaking to Empire Magazine he stated, "I don’t know if anyone has achieved a more serious tone of kaiju vs kaiju with human drama, that challenge, is something I would like to explore."
He went on to add, "When you have movies that feature [kaiju battles], I think it's very easy to put the spotlight and the camera on this massive spectacle, and it detaches itself from the human drama component."
However, there might be a lengthy wait for the sequel as Yamazaki recently told Collider, that he's already committed to filming another project that he'll need to wrap up before starting work on a Minus One sequel.
"I can tell you [the Minus One sequel's] not going to be my next film. I've already got my next film in development that I'm working on but will it be the one after that? That remains to be seen," Yamazaki teased.
Minus One recently ended its North American theatrical run as the 3rd highest-grossing foreign-language film of all-time after Life is Beautiful and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
The film also recently secured a Best Visual Effects Oscar nomination, where it will compete against The Creator, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, and Napoleon. It is the first Oscar nomination for the Godzilla franchise in the IP's history.
Yamazaki (Lupin III: The First, Dragon Quest: Your Story) directed and wrote Godzilla Minus One. In the film Ryunosuke Kamiki portrays Koichi Shikishima, Minami Hamabe portrays Noriko Oishi, Yuki Yamada portrays Shiro Mizushima, Munetaka Aoki portrays Sosaku Tachibana, and Hidetaka Yoshioka portrays Kenji Noda.
The official synopsis for the film reads, "In the final days of World War II, a small group of Japanese soldiers encounter a dinosaur-like creature on a remote island and are massacred—leaving only two survivors. Two years later, the creature, now many times its original size and capable of shooting thermonuclear breath, appears and begins attacking ships off the coast of Japan—moving ever closer to the still-devastated, post-war Japanese mainland."
Godzilla Minus One started its limited theatrical run in North America on December 1, following special fan showings on November 29.