One of the joys of this year’s San Diego Comic-Con was not having just one, but three panels dedicated to Godzilla as the Big G celebrates his 70th anniversary. The first panel, “70 Years of Godzilla: A Nostalgic Journey,” featured director Ryûhei Kitamura, whose own addition to the Godzilla pantheon, Godzilla: Final Wars (FW), is celebrating its 20th anniversary.
Director Kitamura shared the stage with moderator Jessica Tseang, co-host of The Kaiju Kingdom Podcast, and performance capture actors Allan Henry and T.J. Storm for a lively discussion of Godzilla’s first 70 years and their own contributions to the Big G’s legacy (you can see our interviews with Henry and Storm here and here).
When asked by Tseang how he felt about FW being made during Godzilla’s 50th year and how FW is now 20, Director Kitamura joked, “I feel old.” After the laughter subsided, Kitamura added that he was “honored and proud” to be a Godzilla director.
When he made FW, he threw in everything he could think of because it was supposed to be Godzilla’s final movie. “I never trusted Toho Studio that it would be the final Godzilla film. I mean, fuck off,” he joked. Still, he went big with the plot and the army of kaiju in the movie just in case.
The affable director noted that the success of the Legendary Godzilla movies (a.k.a. the Monsterverse) has made it possible for more Godzilla films. He said that Godzilla as a franchise was on its way down before FW and that’s why Toho “put Godzilla to sleep.” The Monsterverse has resulted in more Godzilla on screen for everyone.
One of the funnier tidbits Kitamura shared about FW was about the casting of UFC champion Don Frye as Captain Gordon. Frye was fighting a lot in Japan at the time, but he wasn’t Kitamura’s first choice—he wanted Jean Reno and Sonny Chiba, but they were “too expensive.” He also thought of casting Don Johnson, but again, the price was too high. However, when he met Frye, he knew he was the Captain. Kitamura said he literally wined and dined him to get him to say “yes,” and that Frye was funny on the set.
Other insights Kitamura shared with the packed room: When Tseang showed the scene in FW where Godzilla fights his 1998 American version (called “Zilla” by Toho), Kitamura laughed, but pointed out he loves Roland Emmerich movies and meant “no disrespect.” He said that even if he was given a bigger budget, he’d still use actors in suits instead of CGI. He also noted that FW was too long. When asked by a fan what he would do differently if he could make a director’s cut, such as incorporate deleted scenes, Kitamura said, “If I could do a director’s cut, I would make it much shorter.” One thing he didn’t do that he wanted to was put Mechagodzilla in Final Wars. The most recent two films in the series had already starred MechaG and he didn’t want to disrespect the character, though he expressed regret that he didn’t get to do his own version. Also, although his favorite villain is Gigan, he’d like to see Biollante in the Monsterverse.
The Nerd Element interviewed Director Kitamura while he was at SDCC 2024 and he was just as charming and funny as he was on the panel. Because I was at the panel before the interview, a lot of the FW questions I wanted to ask were already answered. Also, Kitamura mentioned during the panel that he’s answered a lot of the same questions from journalists about Godzilla all these years, so what I had planned to be a Final Wars-focused interview turned into a more wide-ranging one, covering his early film success with 2000’s Versus, as well as his work directing 2008’s The Midnight Meat Train, which is based on a story by Clive Barker. Director Kitamura also teased his next project, a roller coaster movie called Thill Ride.
