Growing up, I was infatuated with monsters. Perhaps chiefly among them was Godzilla, and a cursory glance at my own life now will reveal that this is still very much so the case. I distinctly remember this being, and to a lesser extent so today, a singularly personified interest, one that I alone held. It was an obsession born aloft by long nights watching clips from various Godzilla movies on then-young YouTube, and a passion fostered by the ilk of James Rolfe’s Cinemassacre’s Monster Madness – an annual celebration of creature features held every Halloween, one year even being entirely dedicated to a Godzilla-thon. As I have grown up, however, the world around me has seemed to grow as in love with Godzilla as myself. And by the world, of course, I mean my native Britain.
The first Godzilla films I saw in cinemas were naturally the American MonsterVerse features, of which I can recall with relative clarity those being occasions wherein the cinemas were somewhat sparsely populated by moviegoers who were visibly fans, bedecked by Godzilla t-shirts and memorabilia. When Takashi Yamazaki released Godzilla Minus One in late 2023, I remember the cinema being absolutely packed by a far larger variety of people than I had expected.
Likewise, what was once a niche experience, finding the BFI DVD release of the original 1954 Godzilla (A DVD I still have, though its casing has seen far better days), is now a somewhat common experience, and the Criterion Collection Blu-Rays of either Godzilla vs. Biollante or the original Godzilla film are commonplace at any British HMV. I have even bought Godzilla-related merchandise such as plushies and T-Shirts from mainstream stores, unrelated to the selling of fanboy or nerd media. Has Godzilla finally broken free of obscurity and made his way to our small wee island nation as a pop culture icon?
Thanks to Anime Ltd., I was lucky enough to be invited to the Godzilla Minus Zero preview screening at the BFI IMAX in London, an occasion which identified to me the diversity of the Godzilla fandom in the UK. Not so much a subculture per se, but rather more akin to an under culture, one which lines the borders of a multitude of demographics and identities. From leather-adorned goths, to excited nerds, and across all ages, it was a cacophonous menagerie of peoples.
Whether they were a young adult in official merchandise, or an elderly couple whose attire would suggest a legitimacy of critical credentials, there was a living, palpable enthusiasm shared amongst the crowd, one that held no degree of irony whatsoever. No one saw this film as being something below them, nor did anyone presume to mock it in any sense. For a franchise previously derided as cheap and of poor quality, this genuine excitement beheld a massive change in attitudes across the country. Godzilla has had an interesting legacy in the UK, not least because it spawned its own rip-off in the Island nation (1961’s Gorgo, a movie worthy of its own diatribe).
Initially, the nation only saw the theatrical releases of the heavily edited American iterations of the first two Godzilla films as retitled Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, and Gigantis: The Fire Monster, respectively. The latter of these omitted any reference to the monsters’ actual names entirely.
Later, as TV came along, American dubs distributed by Henry Saperstein throughout the 60s and early 70s saw many more of these films released, with an occasional theatrical release once in a while. This obviously failed to cultivate any real fan presence that was otherwise fostered by the ilk of Doctor Who or Star Trek. This was exacerbated by the fact that these films were mostly shown on ITV, a regional distributor, thereby meaning that only certain areas ever saw these movies. Scotland in its entirety saw absolutely none of these films. Later years would see the American dubbed versions of a select few of these movies released on DVD, but after the 80s, there were no more theatrically released Godzilla films until 2004 wherein the unedited version of Ishiro Honda’s original classic was first shown.
With the MonsterVerse, however, these films found a new life, even if they were largely only viewed as a precursor to the more modern American features, something to be acknowledged but not necessarily enjoyed by a general audience. It was with these films that I first saw Godzilla merchandise appear in the United Kingdom. Of course, the massive COVID-era release of 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong got audiences excited for the matchup of the monsters, and broke into the mainstream zeitgeist with much success. It was with Godzilla Minus One, however, wherein I think people truly began to take this franchise seriously, especially amongst general audiences.
With that, alongside the subsequent rollout of 2024’s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, the franchise’s presence in the mainstream maintained long enough to carry over into this year’s new, and much anticipated release, especially so as audiences prepare for the anticipated release of a third Godzilla x Kong film next year in Godzilla x Kong: Supernova.
Speaking to a friend, another lifelong Godzilla fan from the UK, I asked her what her thoughts were on the changing attitudes regarding Godzilla in Britain. On the topic of how she thinks these attitudes have shifted, she stated that she felt as though the release, and subsequent meritorious reception, of Minus One had afforded the franchise significantly more respect, elevating it to a “prestige”, above that which it had previously occupied.
However, she also felt that Godzilla had not yet truly gone mainstream. Most everyone is aware of the King of the Monsters, but few have seen the films themselves, save for perhaps the MonsterVerse franchise over in America. However, she also specified that the increase in merchandise (through such chains as Forbidden Planet), that more people have become aware of the supporting kaiju such as Ghidorah and Rodan. Lastly, on the topic of the future of the franchise, she was of the belief that, in order to maintain its centrality, it must continue to have a constant output, lest it once again sink into obscurity. Children now are also enabled for the first time in the UK, to grow up going to see these movies in the cinemas, making it incredibly likely that this new era betokens a new generation of Godzilla fans.
With Toho officially opening the Godzilla Store to the UK this week with limited products, it seems as though they too have recognised this growth in fandom and have acted accordingly to spread it further.
Godzilla Minus Zero opens to general audiences in the UK on the 6th of November, and, if its reception is to be anything akin to that of its preview showcasing, then it’ll be more than liable to arise to the occasion and become an all-time classic and a favourite for many out of this year’s film releases. The excitement for this movie only seems to grow more and more with each passing day, and I for one, see no reason why it ought not to go even higher. Minus Zero is an event movie like few Godzilla movies before it, and to see that energy arise in the UK is a new sensation, and suggests a broader, bigger future for the King of the Monsters in the United Kingdom.
