Casting for the Kaiju x Cold War spy thriller Monsterverse spinoff television series has amped up again with announcements of Tim Robbins (Silo) and Giancarlo Esposito.

Interesting perspective on the creative process for Minus One in addition to teasing a third film.

“It would’ve been very easy to ride that wave, and I was very tempted to at certain moments. But we didn’t set out to capture a worldwide audience [with Minus One], and that was what made it quite unique,” Yamazaki says. “So I wanted to cherish that origin point, and instead of selling out, for lack of a better phrase, by making a film tailored toward the U.S. or American fans of Minus One, I wanted to tell a story that felt important [at home] right now.”

More news on premieres and media events as Godzilla Minus Zero hits theatrical release this week.

Despite the global streaming success of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and the Wyatt Russell Cold War prequel spinoff now in production in Prague, Czechia and London, UK (working title‘Birdwatcher’), it’s third season renewal remains uncertain.

Apple and Legendary Television are reportedly in discussions about a significant reworking of the show with a new creative team and showrunners and promises of more new titans.

For those of us, especially in the international audience, who really liked how Monarch was more grounded and leaned back into the original grounded and character-driven narratives that we saw in the 2014 film and in Skull Island, this is not great news.

For the younger audience (mainly in the US) who have been so vocally critical of Monarch, this seems to be a reset to change their narrative.

The reports say that any new direction for Monarch will not affect the prequel show with Wyatt Russell.

Toho has announced that, to celebrate Godzilla Day November 3rd (and to coincide with the release in Japan), some/select IMAX theatres will run a single 7:00 pm early special showing of Godzilla Minus Zero ahead of the broader international release on November 6, 2026.

It’s unclear if this will happen beyond the US market.

So, this link to a 12 year old posting on YouTube of an even older Japanese language ad for Hitachi just showed up in my feed.

For all who would like a copy for posterity, now we know whet to find it.

Enjoy!

Most of the major review sites have filed at least a ‘first look’ review of Godzilla Minus Zero following the world premiere at the New York Film Festival last weekend.

It’s mostly enthusiastic, with the exception of the odd one that criticizes any focus on ‘boring human characters’ vs Kaiju bashing one another. There’s even early musing that the film is in the hunt for a Best Picture Oscar nomination.

Here’s a round up of the reviews:

Hollywood Reporter

Polygon

IGN

Den of Geek

The Guardian (previously posted)

Roger Ebert

Screen Daily

Joblo

The Wrap

The Daily Beast

Reviews for Godzilla Minus Zero are being posted following its world premiere at the New York Film Festival.

The. Guardian review is posted but feel welcome to add links to others in this thread.

4/5 stars for an a genre film is extraordinary from The Guardian.

the movie’s extended climax features some of the most majestic CG monster action put to film; if the fun American MonsterVerse series tends toward pro-wrestling kaiju, Godzilla Minus Zero cross-breeds its fight-to-the-death grappling with disaster-movie scope and horror-movie teeth.

More on the R rating, and some information about the blew the roof off premiere at the New York Film Festival…

The long-awaited sequel to 2023’s “Godzilla Minus One” earned rave first reactions from the press earlier in the day, and that adoration rolled right into the world premiere. The movie was met with multiple mid-screening applauses as the crowd went wild for all the kaiju mayhem on screen.

“Logically, as a studio — and even as a director — you want as many people from the general public to be able to see your film,” Yamazaki told Variety at the premiere Saturday afternoon. “So, an R-rating might seem like a barrier to entry, and conversations about, ‘Hey, could we have not gotten this down to PG-13?’ of course are going to happen. In spite of that, though, there were certain scenes that, for me as a director, were so essential to the film. Censoring it or cutting it was just not an option for me.”

This report from Bloody Disgusting that Godzilla Minus Zero has received an R rating for excessive blood and violence is being cited elsewhere.

Unfortunately, the piece doesn’t say which rating authority in what country gave this rating. Since Bloody Disgusting is a US-based horror site, it’s likely to be the US rating.

As we know, the regulators vary on classification so it will be interesting to see how the film is evaluated and rated across jurisdictions.

For those of us looking to populate our holiday gift lists, the IMAX collection of movie collectibles has already been posted ahead of the upcoming premiere of Godzilla Minus Zero.

My partner seems to have received the memo — at least based on the “Oh no” accompanied by laughter from the lower floor.

As another example of Asian live-action and animated screen productions’ rapid and accelerating growth globally, Toho is increasing its footprint in Europe.

Toho Europe, the regional arm of Tokyo-based entertainment group Toho Co., Ltd. – founded in 1932 and best known internationally for the “Godzilla” franchise – announced a new branch in France. The company has been expanding across the European market since acquiring Anime Ltd. earlier this year, and said the French office would serve as a foundation for deeper engagement with the country’s film and animation industries.

As the US financial markets, politicians and entertainment media obsess about mergers and moving production of US scripted shows back to the United States, this seems like an enormous reality check. The United States provides less and less of the scripted entertainment globally.

It squashes the long held beliefs that the world watches/prefers American popular entertainment exports over those made at home or in other countries and regions.

There’s a new global leader in greenlights.

Over the first half of 2026, Asia surpassed both North America and Europe to become the world’s leader in streaming scripted orders, the researchers at Ampere Analysis have found. From January through June, 36 percent of “first-run scripted TV orders from the leading global streamers” (Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+, HBO Max, Netflix and Paramount+) originated in the APAC (Asia-Pacific, which encompasses countries in East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania) region.

What’s unfortunate for members of this instance is that, in this process, it’s science fiction and fantasy that are being crowded out on the major streamers. (Perhaps that’s because English speaking science fiction and fantasy viewers are less willing to give scripted shows in and films in other languages a try…? )

Here’s a chart of the trends :

As a Canadian, who sees many of our Canadian productions obscure that they are set in Canada or even outright pretend to be in the USA even when based on Canadian source material, I hope that this means that we can tell our own stories without having to obscure our identity for distribution to international audiences.

Test screenings appear to have been completed for the upcoming Legendary Pictures Monsterverse cinematic release (expected in 2027 as opposed to the upcoming *Godzilla Minus Zero from Toho).

The buzz is coming from ‘anonymous screener reports’ to fan sites and IMDb.

Seems positive. Reportedly, the cartoonish extremes have been dialed back somewhat but still not as grounded as Godzilla (2014) and *Kong: Skull Island or Monarch: Legacy of Monsters.

Just posted today on the creator’s Mastodon account.

Local media in Prague, Czech Republic, are continuing to provide updates on early production for Birdwatcher — working title for the new Monsterverse Monarch: Legacy of Monsters spinoff show focused on Lee Shaw during the Cold War in the 1980s.

The Prague Reporter can reveal exclusive photos from the production, showing star Wyatt Russell on location alongside an array of period props and vehicles. The imagery points to a story set in the Soviet Union during the Cold War, with Russell’s Lee Shaw apparently operating undercover and under pursuit by the KGB…

…The Prague Reporter’s exclusive set photos offer the clearest look yet at Birdwatcher‘s Cold War setting. Several images show period props featuring Cyrillic lettering, while others capture Russell in scenes that appear to depict his character moving covertly behind the Iron Curtain...

…e Cyrillic markings on props strongly suggest that Birdwatcher is portraying the Soviet Union, although the specific locations represented by the scenes have not been officially identified. Previous reports have placed the story in 1984, when Shaw is sent on a secret mission behind enemy lines to prevent the Soviet Union from unleashing a Titan capable of changing the course of the Cold War.

Here a couple of the large number of behind the scenes photos from the article.

Note: the lower photo for bread store #61 🍞— хлеб is Russian for bread.

A review and update on the latest IDW comic offering in the Godzilla franchise as well as a reflection on the evolution of comics as separate narratives from screen.

Flash forward to the modern era and Godzilla comics are just fucking weird! No concept seems to be too outlandish. No crossover too absurd. No retcon too sacrilegious.

Indeed, if you’ve picked up a book from IDW lately (the custodians of the brand as far as print is concerned), you’ll have been exposed to some of the wackiest takes on the King of the Monsters imaginable. He’s been sent to hell (both Norse and Catholic), corrupted by the Venom symbiote, fought 16th-century pirates, and been the subject of a geopolitical conspiracy that triggered the respective assassinations of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Bugsy Siegel and Abraham Lincoln. Some of those things all happened in the same batshit story!

Breaking news on Godzilla Minus Zero world premiere.

The 2026 NY Film Festival will host the world premiere of Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus Zero.

The sequel to sleeper hit Godzilla Minus One will screen as the Spotlight gala selection on Sept. 26 at the 64th annual event.

Cool article about a great initiative.

If you’re not reading articles frequently from The Japan Times, the paywall shouldn’t kick in.

A suitably summery Godzilla cartoon from Grickle. Available for purchase from the creator at the link to their website.

Titans in a theme park ride set in the Hollow Earth? Sounds cool.

A press release describes it as a “multimedia dark ride,” as well as “the world’s first attraction to integrate Legendary’s Monsterverse into a fully immersive theme park experience,” and it’s joining Lotte World Adventure‘s slate of attractions starting July 24. Here’s an effects-heavy trailer setting the mood but not giving too much actual insight into what to expect.

Wish it were closer than Seoul, South Korea. Perhaps Canada’s Wonderland could add something like this?

A new official trailer for Godzilla Minus Zero was dropped today by Toho.

Enjoy!

I’ll come back with another post with links to some of the trailer analyses out there after a few days

While the production information in US-based entertainment media have emphasized that the new Apple Cold War 1980s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters spinoff — working title Birdwatcher — will be shooting in Australia or South Pacific locations, it appears that production licences are in place for Prague and surrounding areas in Czechia.

Given the Cold War focus, locations in Eastern Europe make sense. Canadian locations can only stand in for so much of Russia and Kazakhstan (as they did in Monarch). Prague features in many shows needing urban Eastern European locations now that Russian coproductions are not viable.

In the May issue of Location Internationalmagazine, Czech Film Commissioner Pavlína Žipková discusses international productions filming in the country this year, and references the project under the title The American Birdwatcher. 

Stillking Films, one of the Czech Republic’s leading production service companies, has registered the project with the Czech Audiovisual Fund and will coordinate local production activities.

JG Dillard shared this first behind the scenes production photo on Instagram for the new ‘Young Lee Shaw’ Monsterverse Apple spinoff series starring Wyatt Russell.

The working title is ’Birdwatcher’. Production started in mid June.