To celebrate Godzilla Day (the big fella made his big-screen debut on November 3, 1954), Toho has released a brand-new trailer for Godzilla Minus One. The movie roars into Japanese theaters today, and tickets are now on sale for its U.S. release on December 1.
The trailer features plenty of new footage of the King of the Monsters on the rampage, as the titanic kaiju destroys everything in his path. Then, right at the end, we get a shot of his dorsal plates glowing blue and extending (a new feature) as he prepares to unleash an atomic blast.
No other kaiju appear in the teaser, though we have it on good authority that at least one other monster will show up in the movie (click here as long as you're okay with spoilers).
The run-time for Minus One was recently revealed, and the movie is set to clock in at 125 minutes, (2 hours and 5 minutes), tying it with Godzilla: Final Wars (2004) as the longest Toho Godzilla film. This also makes it the third longest in the entire franchise (Hollywood and Polygon productions included) after Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2 hours and 12 minutes) and 1998's Godzilla (2 hours and 19 minutes).
This will be Toho's first Godzilla movie since 2016's Shin Godzilla. Takashi Yamazaki - the filmmaker who worked on visual effects for Shin Godzilla - will direct the film.
Yamazaki recently outlined his original pitch for the project, while explaining that unusual title.
"Postwar Japan has lost everything. The film depicts an existence that gives unprecedented despair. The title Godzilla Minus One was created with this in mind. In order to depict this, the staff and I have worked together to create a setting where Godzilla looks as if "fear" itself is walking toward us, and where despair is piled on top of despair. I think this is the culmination of all the films I have made to date, and one that deserves to be "experienced" rather than "watched" in the theater. I hope you will experience the most terrifying Godzilla in the best possible environment."
Specific plot details are also still under wraps, but a (very) brief synopsis tells us that Godzilla: Minus One "sees an already devastated postwar Japan facing a new threat in the form of Godzilla."
The movie is set to debut in the U.K. and Ireland on December 15.