10 Sequels That Completely Ignored The Previous Film

7. The Return Of Godzilla

Sequel to: Godzilla But not: Godzilla Raids Again; King Kong vs. Godzilla; Mothra vs. Godzilla; Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster; Invasion of Astro-Monster; Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster; Son of Godzilla; Destroy All Monsters; All Monsters Attack; Godzilla vs. Hedorah; Godzilla vs. Gigan; Godzilla vs. Megalon; Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla; Terror of Mechagodzilla Here's where it gets extra confusing: Return of Godzilla had six of its own sequels during the 80s and 90s, which followed the original movie with its own take on the previous series' monsters like Mothra and Ghidorah. This series too was rebooted with Godzilla 2000, which began the Millenium series, essentially a bunch of standalone alternative Godzilla films that all follow on from the 1954 original. Meanwhile, an Americanised version of the original film, titled Godzilla: King of the Monsters, added footage shot in America with American actors, a process repeated with Return of Godzilla to make the film Godzilla 1985. The 1998 American film directed by Roland Emmerich was under licence from Japanese studio Toho, but not part of any official continuity. Toho refer to the monster from this film as "Zilla" in marketing materials. The new American series starting from 2014 is also licensed by Toho, but is its own continuity. So which should I watch? There are plenty of fans of both the Showa (the original sequels) and Heisei (post Return of Godzilla sequels) eras. The former is more light-hearted and charming, the latter more action packed. Despite some ropey effects both are generally preferred to the messy Millenium series.