Godzilla: 20 Mind-Blowing Facts You Didn't Know
9. The Godzilla Creators HATED The American Remake
For years, American executives tried to find the right director to adapt Godzilla for a Western audience. After Roland Emmerich's film, Independence Day, made a staggering $817 million at the box office, he seemed like the perfect man for the job and so, was chosen to direct the 1998 American remake of Godzilla. People couldn't be more excited. And when the teaser trailer was released, fans were blown away.
You know what didn't blow fans away?
The movie. It stunk. Big time.
Kenpachiro Satsuma, who played Godzilla for ten years, said that this movie “didn’t have the spirit” of Godzilla.
However, nobody hated it more than Toho. In their later films, they reference Emmerich's Godzilla as a separate creature that wasn’t connected to the Japanese Godzilla. Toho call this movie’s monster “Zilla” because he “took the God out of Godzilla.” Hardcore Godzilla fans hated the movie so much, they called the monster GINO, which stands for “Godzilla in Name Only.”
To show just how much Toho hated the American Godzilla movie, they had Zilla battle Godzilla in the movie, Godzilla: Final Wars. Godzilla wins the fight in five seconds.