[Trailer] Netflix’s ‘Godzilla: Monster Planet’ Looks Massive

Toho has released a new, full trailer for Godzilla: Monster Planet (aka Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters). The anime is hitting theaters in Japan on November 17th, 2017, with a premiere on Netflix expected elsewhere in the world later this year. The trailer itself is not subtitled, but based upon the imagery and the synopsis below, it’s pretty easy to get the gist of it all.

In the year 2048, the human race is forced to leave Earth after decades of losing against Godzilla and other giant monsters. They take a twenty year journey to another planet called Tau Ceti e, but upon arrival, they discover that the planet has become uninhabitable. As living conditions on their ship deteriorate, a young man named Haruo spearheads a movement to return to Earth and take it back from the monsters. The ship successfully makes the return voyage, but the crew discovers that twenty thousand years have passed and Earth’s ecosystem has evolved, with Godzilla reigning atop the new food chain.

How can you not be excited by that premise?

It was recently reported that last year’s live action Toho entry in the franchise, Shin Godzilla, would not be receiving a sequel until 2020 at the earliest. Many fans, myself included, wondered why Toho would wait so long. Some pointed to the deal with Warner Bros. and Legendary, but Shin Godzilla itself was made in the midst of that deal. With WB’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters arriving in 2019 and Godzilla vs. Kong hitting in 2020, surely there would be room for some Japan-created Godzilla projects as well?

It turns out there is, but not in live action form. It seems that Godzilla: Monster Planet is to be the first in a trilogy of Godzilla anime films. There are no official release dates set for the second and third films, but they are currently expected to arrive in 2018 and 2019. As a result, it makes sense that Toho would wait until at least 2020 to sequelize Shin Godzilla. While I would happily be drowned in Godzilla films for the next three years, it’s not hard to see why Toho and Legendary might not want the market completely flooded with product.

Regardless of whether he’s stomping onto the screen in live action or animated form, it’s a great time to be a fan of Godzilla (and kaiju in general). Especially when the Big G is as huge as he is these days!