Godzillahas long been the terror of the silver screen. With more than 30 films stretched across more than 70 years, it can be a little intimidating trying to jump into the films. Generally speaking, Godzilla films are fairly independent, though watching them in order within their individual era tends to make the most amount of sense.
Do you start with the original Showa Era films, where the atomic lizard got started, or do you jump right into the much more recent Monsterverse? While a lot of this comes down to taste, we gathered all the main Godzilla movies and broke them down, so you can check out everything that the baddest kaiju around has to offer.
Godzilla Showa Era Films
These films are the origins of Godzilla, with the origins of the massive monster coming just a few years after the end of World War II. The first Godzilla film was released in 1954 in Japan, and would eventually be released in a heavily edited version in America called Godzilla, King of the Monsters! just two years later.
This era of Godzilla films is named after the reign of Japanese Emperor Showa, more commonly known as Emperor Hirohito in English, and encompasses all 15 Godzilla films up to 1975.
1954
1955
1962
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
Ishirō Honda
Godzilla Heisei Era Films
After taking almost a decade break Godzilla made a return with the Heisei era of films. These films introduced a ton of great monsters for Godzilla to fight, including Biollante, SpaceGodzilla, and Destoroyah.
The Heisei films also ignore most if not all of the other Showa era films outside of the original film. Several of the Godzilla films from this era deal with the more biological elements of the kaiju’s powers, ending with the titanic lizard literally having a meltdown in the middle of Tokyo.
1984
1989
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
Takao Ōkawara
Godzilla Millennium Era Films
After another break, though this time much shorter, Toho took the films in another new direction and hard reboot of the Godzilla films. Keeping only the original 1954 Godzilla film, these movies aremore independent than the previous eras. As such, you may watch them in any order without missing any sort of continuity.
1999
2000
Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack
2001
2002
2003
2004
Masaaki Tezuka
Godzilla Reiwa Era Films
After the 50th anniversary film, Godzilla: Final Wars, the series took a 12 year break from Godzilla and his kaiju contemporaries. Since the films ended with bringing in tons of monsters for Godzilla to fight, Toho had to bring in something that upped the stakes a bit to drum up hype for the films.
That’s where Neon Genesis Evangelion director and writer Hideaki Anno comes in with Shin Godzilla. This film diverged from the historic origins of the dropping of atomic weapons in World War II and pulled inspiration from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster instead. It is also notably much grosser of a film, with some truly gorey moments in the film that depict Godzilla as less of a noble protector andmore of a truly horrifying monster.
2016
2017
2018
2023
Takashi Yamazaki
Godzilla Monsterverse Era Films
Almost mirroring the Reiwa era of films comes the American iteration of Godzilla. This run of films is part of a larger Monstervers that includes a standalone King Kong film and has Godzilla teaming up with the giant gorilla several times.
2014
2019
2021
2024
