Summary

• The Godzilla franchise has spanned over half a century with multiple movies and TV shows, including a Hollywood reboot and the MonsterVerse.
• Toho, a Japanese studio, has produced over 30 Godzilla movies, divided into four eras: Shōwa, Heisei, Millennium, and Reiwa.
• The MonsterVerse, which includes Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Godzilla vs. Kong, has expanded the franchise and has its own TV show, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters.

The Godzilla franchise has majestically roared to glory for more than half a century, beginning with the 1954 Toho movie and then going through multiple renditions, including a Hollywood debut and the MonsterVerse franchise. The thermonuclear Godzilla, in his awe-inducing first film, wreaked havoc on Tokyo but still managed to subvert previous monster genre tropes. With Godzilla allegorically representing the horrors of nuclear war, later Godzilla movies have painted him as an antihero who occasionally helps humanity defeat evil kaiju like Ghidorah and Mothra. The legacy of Godzilla can still be felt as the franchise branches out with TV shows like the Apple TV+ original Monarch: Legacy of Monsters.

Japanese studio Toho retained its ownership of the prehistoric reptile lizard, ultimately producing more than 30 Godzilla movies. Most of these ended up pitting Godzilla against a specific villain — a creature often revealed in the title. After Roland Emmerich helmed a critically polarizing Hollywood film in 1998, Godzilla’s fate in the West changed for the better when Gareth Edwards directed a 2014 reboot. With Godzilla’s Japanese studio still churning out their own standalone movies like Shin Godzilla and Godzilla Minus One, the pop culture icon continues to be as relevant as ever.

Godzilla Movies & Shows In Release Order

All Godzilla movies can be divided into three different chronologies based on the respective studios that produced them. Kicking off the franchise with 1954’s Godzilla, Toho brought Godzilla back even after killing him in this first movie. Toho’s decision to expand the franchise ended up with a whopping 33 films (30 of them being live-action and the rest being animated). The Toho Godzilla movies can be divided into four eras: the Shōwa era, the Heisei era, the Millennium era, and the Reiwa era. A Hannah-Barbara Godzilla also aired after the Shōwa era from 1978 to 1979, but it wasn’t connected to any of the Toho releases.

As for Godzilla’s Hollywood outings, TriStar Pictures produced Godzilla (1998), which was followed by an animated series of the same name from 1998 to 2000. Then came Legendary Pictures, which rebooted the creature’s origin with Godzilla (2014). The latter spawned the MonsterVerse, which included Godzilla: King of the Monsters in 2019 and the mega-crossover Godzilla vs Kong in 2021. Also part of the MonsterVerse is the Apple TV+ series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, which premiered in 2023. The Toho series has led to five TV shows, starting with the 1973 superhero series Zone Fighter (which guest-starred Godzilla) to the 2023 children’s anime Chibi Godzilla Raids Again.

Here is how to watch every Godzilla movie and TV show in order of release date.

Toho

Shōwa Era

• Godzilla (1954)
• Godzilla Raids Again (1955)
• King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)
• Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)
• Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)
• Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965)
• Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966)
• Son of Godzilla (1967)
• Destroy All Monsters (1968)
• All Monsters Attack (1969)
• Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)
• Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)
• Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)
• Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)
• Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)

Heisei Era

• The Return of Godzilla (1984)
• Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989)
• Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)
• Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992)
• Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993)
• Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994)
• Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995)

Millennium Era

• Godzilla 2000 (1999)
• Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000)
• Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)
• Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002)
• Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)
• Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)

Reiwa Era

• Shin Godzilla (2016)
• Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters (2017)
• Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle (2018)
• Godzilla: The Planet Eater (2018)
• Godzilla Minus One (2023)

Standalone Toho TV Shows

• Zone Fighter (1973)
• Godzilland (1992–1996)
• Godzilla Island (1997–1998)
• Godzilla Singular Point (2021)
• Chibi Godzilla Raids Again (2023)

TriStar

• Godzilla (1998)
• Godzilla: The Series (1998–2000)

MonsterVerse

• Godzilla (2014)
• Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
• Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)
• Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (2023-)
• Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)

Toho Godzilla Movies In Chronological Order Of Events

The Shōwa Era (1954-1975)

Named so in honor of Emperor Shōwa who was reigning at the time, the 15 movies of Toho’s Shōwa era follow the same chronology as the order of their release. Even though the 1954 movie killed off Godzilla, the reptile returns as a clone in the 1955 direct sequel Godzilla Raids Again. The future sequels in this era were mostly billed as one-on-one battles between Godzilla and Kaiju that became canonical mainstays. Examples include 1962’s King Kong vs. Godzilla, which put Godzilla up against King Kong, and its 1964 sequel Mothra vs. Godzilla, which paved the way for many more kaiju movies featuring the giant moth Mothra.

Godzilla co-creator Eiji Tsuburaya also created the Japanese superhero Ultraman.

The Mothra movie directly led up to the 1964 classic Ghidorah: The King of Monsters which introduced Godzilla’s three-headed foe. A notable highlight from the Shōwa era is the eighth sequel, Son Of Godzilla (1967), which introduced an infant monster adopted by Godzilla. Son of Godzilla’s 1969 sequel, All Monsters Attack, continued Godzilla’s arc as a playful hero, as these two movies were specifically targeted toward younger audiences. After many more one-on-one duels, the robotic duplicate Mechagodzilla concluded the chronology of this era with the final two movies: Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974) and Terror of the Mechagodzilla (1975).

Heisei Era

The Heisei era rebooted Toho’s Godzilla movies in 1984 with The Return of Godzilla, a direct sequel to 1954’s Godzilla that ignored the rest of the events of the Shōwa era. The rest of the movies in this era were released in chronological order, continuing the story set up by The Return of Godzilla. The Heisei era continued Godzilla’s hatred for King Ghidorah with Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991). This sequel, in particular, marked a watershed moment for Godzilla’s origins, as it explained how a dinosaur (titled Godzillasaurus) could be mutated by nuclear radiation to reach Godzilla’s power levels.

All the Heisei era movies after The Return of Godzilla were yet again marketed as duels between Godzilla and other new and returning kaiju. This is more than evident from the inclusion of the word “vs.” in each of these Heisei-era Godzilla movies. The 1993 sequel Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla does create some confusion in the era’s chronology, considering its English dub was released as Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II. Despite the name, this release was not at all related to previous Mechagodzilla movies of the Shōwa era. Overall, the Heisei era introduced improved special effects and offered some of the best movies of the Godzilla franchise.

Millennium Era

The year 1999 marked the second reboot of Toho’s Godzilla productions with Godzilla 2000: Millennium’s release. Barring one, all Godzilla movies in the Millennium era were standalone stories treating only the 1954 movie as a prequel. In this sense, the Millennium era mostly works as an anthology of Godzilla movies. The only exceptions are the interconnected sequels Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002) and Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003). The concluding film of this era was Godzilla: Final Wars (2004) which was different from its predecessors in the sense that it existed within its own continuity and ignored even the events of the 1954 movie.

The Millennium era introduced the Godzilla Prediction Network (GPN), an organization dedicated to collecting information about Godzilla sightings and predicting his future moves.

Reiwa Era

The current era of Toho’s Godzilla movies is the Reiwa era, which started with the lore-changing Shin Godzilla (2016). However, 2023’s Godzilla Minus One is chronologically the first movie of the Reiwa era with its events unfolding in the 1950s. Godzilla Minus One can even be seen as the first chapter in the entire franchise, as it explores the reptile’s origins from 1945 to 1947 (preceding even the events of the 1954 film). The Reiwa era also includes a standalone trilogy of animated movies that were released in chronological order: Planet of the Monsters (2017), City on the Edge of Battle (2018), and The Planet Eater (2018).

MonsterVerse Godzilla Movies And Shows In Chronological Order Of Events

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (2023-Present)

Cast: Anna Sawai as Cate Randa, Ren Watabe as Kentaro Randa, Kiersey Clemons as May Olowe-Hewitt, Joe Tippett as Tim, Elisa Lasowski as Duvall, Kurt Russell as Lee Shaw, Wyatt Russell as young Lee Shaw, Mari Yamamoto as Keiko Randa, John Goodman as William Randa, Anders Holm as young William Randa, Josh Collins as Sabitha, Takehiro Hira as Hiroshi Randa, Qyoko Kudo as Emiko Randa

MonsterVerse’s first TV series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is set both before and after the 2014 Godzilla reboot, as the action shifts between the 1950s and the 2010s. In fact, the MonsterVerse show also confirms that the organization Monarch discovered a Titan two years before Godzilla. This discovery of Ion Dragon makes the show chronologically the first chapter of the MonsterVerse. The other timeline in the show also fills the gap between Godzilla (2014) and Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), covering Godzilla’s whereabouts after ravaging San Francisco and the discovery of Titans teased in the 2019 sequel.

Godzilla (2014)

Box Office: $529 million | Runtime: 2 hours 3 minutes

Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson as U.S. Navy EOD LT Ford Brody, Ken Watanabe as Dr. Ishirō Serizawa, Elizabeth Olsen as Elle Brody, Juliette Binoche as Sandra Brody, Sally Hawkins as Dr. Vivienne Graham, David Strathairn as iral William Stenz, Bryan Cranston as Joe Brody, T. J. Storm as Godzilla

The gritty reboot that kicked off the MonsterVerse, Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla dealt with the sudden reappearance of the prehistoric alpha predator. Establishing similar origins to the Toho movies, the 2014 reboot opens with a montage explaining how Godzilla sightings were first reported in 1954. After this, the narrative shifts to a mysterious nuclear disaster in a Japanese power plant in 1999. Godzilla mostly takes place in 2014, with the titular creature’s return coinciding with the appearance of many other MUTOs (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms) in San Francisco. By the end of the movie, the giant lizard unexpectedly becomes humanity’s only hope.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)

Box Office: $387.3 million | Runtime: 2 hours 12 minutes

Cast: Kyle Chandler as Dr. Mark Russell, Vera Farmiga as Dr. Emma Russell, Millie Bobby Brown as Madison Russell. Ken Watanabe as Dr. Ishirō Serizawa, Bradley Whitford as Dr. Rick Stanton, Zhang Ziyi as Dr. Ilene Chen and Dr. Ling Chen, Charles Dance as Alan Jonah, Thomas Middleditch as Dr. Sam Coleman, Aisha Hinds as Colonel Diane Foster, O'Shea Jackson Jr. as Chief Warrant Officer Jackson Barnes, Sally Hawkins as Dr. Vivienne Graham, David Strathairn as iral William Stenz

Much like the year of its release, Godzilla: King of the Monsters is set five years after the events of the 2014 Godzilla. The sequel is notable for the MonsterVerse debut of MUTOs like Rodan, Mothra, and King Ghidorah. The plot begins with eco-terrorists waking King Ghidorah, who begins summoning other Titans to wreak havoc on the planet. Eventually, Godzilla and Mothra team up to face Ghidorah and Rodan in a monumental showdown. The potential for sequels was teased in a series of post-credits scenes that featured a cave painting of Godzilla’s clash against Kong and the primary antagonist, Alan Jonah, recovering one of Ghidorah’s severed heads.

Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

Box Office: $470.1 million | Runtime: 1 hour 53 minutes

Cast: Alexander Skarsgård as Dr. Nathan Lind, Millie Bobby Brown as Madison Russell, Rebecca Hall as Dr. Ilene Andrews, Brian Tyree Henry as Bernie Hayes, Shun Oguri as Ren Serizawa, Eiza González as Maia Simmons, Julian Dennison as Josh Valentine, Lance Reddick as Director Guillerman, Kyle Chandler as Dr. Mark Russell, Demián Bichir as Walter Simmons, Kaylee Hottle as Jia

Godzilla vs. Kong serves as a direct sequel to Godzilla: King of the Monsters, reintroducing many of the 2019 film’s characters. The MonsterVerse’s first showdown between the titular beasts also marks the franchise debut of Mechagodzilla. In of timeline, Godzilla vs. Kong is set five years after Godzilla: King of the Monsters, with the events unfolding in 2024. The crossover event combined the revelations of the previous two Godzilla movies and the King Kong-led Kong: Skull Island (2017), crafting an ambitious future for the MonsterVerse. The discovery of Hollow Earth also increased the scope to include many other Titans in the franchise.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)

Runtime: 2 hours 2 minutes

Cast: Rebecca Hall as Dr. Ilene Andrews, Brian Tyree Henry as Bernie Hayes, Kaylee Hottle as Jia, Dan Stevens, Fala Chen, Alex Ferns, Rachel House

The MonsterVerse crossover Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is set after Godzilla vs. Kong, with Adam Wingard returning to direct. Scheduled for a 2024 release, the MonsterVerse project will explore the lore of Hollow Earth and might include flashbacks to explain the origins of Titans in this dimension. While the villain hasn’t been revealed yet, it’s speculated that Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire will offer an opportunity for both Godzilla and Kong to team up again to fight a deadly threat from Hollow Earth. Much like the other Godzilla movies in the MonsterVerse, the 2024 release is a direct sequel.