NYCC: Takashi Yamazaki on 70 years of GODZILLA

Godzilla has been stomping around, destroying cars and buildings, and wreaking general havoc since his titular original Japanese film in 1954. Still, despite his terrifying stature and body count, he’s amassed countless fans in the 70 years since. This was evidenced by the packed “Godzilla Vs. NYCC” panel at New York Comic Con on Saturday night, in which hundreds of spirited fans amassed to watch Godzilla Minus One writer, director, and visual effects supervisor Takashi Yamazaki discuss his Academy Award-winning film and the title character’s seven-decade legacy.

Moderator and translator Mike, left, with Godzilla Minus One filmmaker Takashi Yamazaki, right. A limited edition gold Godzilla figure sat between them.

The panel started with a montage of clips from dozens of Godzilla films played on the screens adjacent to the stage, from the original 1954 classic to Godzilla Minus One (which reimagined Godzilla from the perspective of Japanese people immediately after World War II), and even the American “Monster-verse” from Legendary pictures. Fans cheered as Godzilla clashed with other kaiju like King Ghidorah and King Kong, showed off his deadly atomic breath, and caused people to run and hide in terror.

Next entered the moderator, identified only as “Mike,” also served as an English language translator for Yamazaki, who spoke entirely in Japanese. Despite the language gap, the relationship between Yamazaki and crowd was warm and humorous, with Yamazaki laughing and smiling throughout while discussing his acclaimed 2023 film.

The discussion kicked off with a chat about Yamazaki’s Oscar win, as he and his visual effects team won “Best Visual Effects” at the 96th Academy Awards. He said that he thought his chances were “about 50/50,” but, not wanting to write a speech in vain, he held off on writing anything until the day before the ceremony. He wrote the speech in Japanese, and Mike translated it into English.

However, he panicked when Godzilla Minus One indeed won the award, beating out much higher-budgeted films like Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 and Napoleon. “Oh crap, I’ve gotta go on stage,” he thought. He suddenly realized he couldn’t read his own writing, but one of his fellow VFX team members told him “we have 45 seconds, you have to say something!”

As a one-man screenwriter, director, and visual effects supervisor, Yamazaki was asked which role he enjoyed the most. “For me, whenever I create something, I don’t see them as different disciplines… it’s all filmmaking.” He added, laughingly, that sometimes he’ll be on set directing, look at the script, and think, “who the heck wrote this?” Similarly, sometimes when he’s working on the visual effects, he’ll think to himself “which director thought I could pull off this effect?”

Takashi Yamazaki’s cats

The filmmaker remarked that a lot of people have told him that the Godzilla of Godzilla Minus One reminded them of their cats (such as the scenes in which Godzilla swipes at planes), but he said he was inspired by his own cat. Godzilla was similarly cat-like when he curled up to sleep in the Roman Colosseum in 2024’s American , directed by Adam Wingard. “I have a theory,” Yamazaki said. “If you want to direct a Godzilla movie, you need to first get a cat.”

Yamazaki also teased the theatrical re-release of Godzilla Minus One coming to theaters on November 1st, which will feature additional visual effects and special behind-the-scenes footage. Yamazaki designed the new poster himself, which was given out to attendees after the panel ended. He also explained how the new poster was a bit off-model, as the Godzilla he drew was much larger than the 50.1 meters that Godzilla stands at according to Toho canon.

Following a montage of celebrities sharing their love of Godzilla, including video game designer Hideo Kojima, actor O’Shea Jackson Jr., and Star Wars luminary \, the Q & A session began. One fan asked which previous Godzilla movie Yamazaki would most like to remake, with the filmmaker answering that he’d like to take on King Ghidorah. He was also asked what his favorite part of NYCC was so far, and answered “this panel,” praising the warmth and enthusiasm of the fans.

Indeed, it was a warm and enthusiastic panel. Happy 70th anniversary, Godzilla!

And check out more NYCC ’24 coverage from The Beat.