Funimation announced during their 2016 San Diego Comic-Con panel that they will be distributing the next Toho Godzilla movie, Godzilla: Resurgence (Shin Godzilla in Japan). And while they didn’t give an exact U.S. release date, Godzilla: Resurgence will make it to theaters in late 2016.
“Funimation is extremely pleased to be working with Toho to bring Shin Godzilla to audiences across the Americas,” Funimation President Gen Fukanaga said.
So far little is known about the plot of Godzilla: Resurgence, though a translated plot synopsis reproduced at Dread Central suggests it will be an origin story, as Japan is confronted by the monster for the first time:
“After a mysterious accident occurs in the tunnels of the Tokyo Bay Aqua Line, Japan’s emergency cabinet convenes to find the cause and a solution. Immediately afterwards, a huge creature appears, destroying town after town on a path of destruction to the nation’s capital… an unfathomable giant organism known as ‘Godzilla.’”
Godzilla has been rebooted several times, with Toho monster continuity broken down into different periods. The original Showa period covers Godzilla movies from the 1954 original to 1975’s Terror of Mechagodzilla. Subsequent series have each begun with sequels to the 1954 original, effectively making the original Godzilla consistently canonical across decades of franchise evolution.
Initial speculation held that Godzilla’s damaged, raw red state in Godzilla: Resurgence was due to the Oxygen Destroyer used to kill the beast in the original Godzilla. But so far the official plot synopsis and trailers suggest Resurgence will instead dramatize the very first emergence of the monster.
Rumors abound about the plot of Godzilla: Resurgence, with many sources claiming that Godzilla will mutate over the course of the movie. We’re sure to know more after it hits Japanese theaters on July 29, after which we can fire up the countdown until its theatrical release in the United States.
