Millenium Series Continuity

 I would have preferred continuity in the series like the Heisei era. Except for 'All out Monsters Attack,' as the mythology in that movie sets it apart enough in an interesting way as to make it a great stand alone movie.

I'm making a book that follows the continuity of godzilla 2000. It has godzilla, Mechagodzilla, Biollante, and Hedorah. 

RAZG - That's a fine question you've asked! I'm uncertain as to why Toho felt they required a reboot for the series. However, I'm pleased with the results of Edwards' iteration of Godzilla. Of course, I very much enjoyed Godzilla 2000 and the multiple films that followed in its wake - they were a bit more brutal and visceral than previous installments! :)

I think it was because they felt the continuity of the heisei limited what they could do with the movies. I personally don't understand why the movies didn't continue with the exception of GMK, as the movies didn't really establish much of a difference, or at least something a few small changes couldn't fix.

Toho was desperate to get back into the international market with Godzilla. That's one reason they ok'd the GINO design even though they didn't like it. They wanted international sales with the franchise like they had in the 50s-70s.

The Heisei series' tight continuity made it hard to sell overseas. Although they stand alone pretty well, each movie had an undercurrent of reoccuring characters, technology or plot points that had minor effect on the next movie. (The Showa films didn't have this problem since most of them have very loose continuity. In a few cases they were released out of order.)

Stand alone stories are easier to seel. So the Millennium series represented an attempt to be more marketable for overseas distributors. It worked in a way... Godzilla 2000 was released in theaters and the rest of the Millennium films made it to DVD more immediately than the bulk of the Heisei movies. (Which took 7-3 years depending on the movie.)

Honestly I liked the change. The continuity in the Heisei series really didn't add much to it. Plus it was exciting to look forward to a new universe every year.

That said, Sony kicked around making a direct sequel to Godzilla 2000 called Godzilla Reborn. It was going to include an American director and cast while being set in Hawaii. But Sony would hire Toho's special effects crew to do the visuals for it using miniatures and suitmation. It would've come out the year after Godzilla x Megaguirus, but the new Sony CEO shot it down.

Sounds like it would've been great ;-;

I'm with Gman2887. I liked the standalone aspect of each of the Millennium series as well. For years I've wanted to see a movie that had all or most of the different Godzilla designs represented - a sort of parallel universe movie, where each one exists in its own universe, and they are somehow brought together into one universe. How cool would that be? You could have all your favorite designs in one movie! I don't know how/if they could incorporate the "cuter/goofier" designs however.

I think that would have made for a much better Godzilla: Final Wars.

Dalek8,

It's best it never got made.