10 Movie Franchises That Were Rebooted Multiple Times

The King of the Monsters is incredibly familiar with reboots, having experienced three in his home country of Japan as well as two American ones.

Following the success of the 1954 original in Japan, Toho began releasing a series of child-friendly Godzilla films that often portrayed him as a heroic character that battled colourful monsters. However, the series would be rebooted in 1985 with The Return of Godzilla (a direct sequel to the original film), and again in 1999 and 2016.

Stateside, the movie monster didn't make his debut until 1956 when a heavily-Americanised version of the original (dubbed Godzilla: King of the Monsters) was released. However, after releasing a few more of the Japanese films to American audiences, the franchise received a full-scale American reboot when TriStar Pictures acquired the rights.

The result was 1998's Godzilla which, although an entertaining blockbuster, received negative reviews from critics - mainly due to the drastic redesign of the titular monster and the fact that he was the villain of the story. Though it was successful at the box-office, it still performed below expectations and a planned trilogy was cancelled.

However, Godzilla would return to the big screen in 2014 when Legendary Pictures rebooted the franchise. This time, it was incredibly successful and received positive reviews, kick-starting Legendary's MonsterVerse and setting the stage for the movie legend's return in this year's Godzilla: King of the Monsters.

With a showdown with Kong on the horizon, this iteration of Godzilla isn't going anywhere any time soon.