‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ Stars Reveal What It Was Like Seeing King Ghidorah for the First Time

Few monster movie sequels have carried as much pressure as ‘Godzilla Minus Zero’. Its predecessor, ‘Godzilla Minus One’, earned over $116 million worldwide and became the first-ever Asian film to win Best Visual Effects at the Oscars.

Director Takashi Yamazaki raised the stakes by bringing back a legendary foe. The sequel adds King Ghidorah, the 3-headed kaiju first introduced in 1964, and in this film Ghidorah tears up Matsumoto City. The Boston Globe called him not only a fan favorite but one of the most important foes Godzilla has ever faced.

Now the film’s 2 leads have shared how they felt when they first saw the monster come to life. In a new interview with DiscussingFilm, Ryunosuke Kamiki and Minami Hamabe described their first reactions to King Ghidorah, explaining that while watching the scenes where Godzilla and Ghidorah go head to head, they could already sense it was exactly what fans would want.

Both actors are back in familiar roles. The sequel continues the story of guilt-ridden WWII kamikaze pilot Kôichi Shikishima (Kamiki) and his makeshift family from the Oscar-winning ‘Godzilla Minus One’, with Kôichi still living in Tokyo with Noriko (Hamabe) and Akiko (Sae Nagatani), the orphaned girl Noriko took in during the first film.

Hamabe’s fans have reason to celebrate. The San Francisco Chronicle noted that she gets considerably more screen time this time around. The story is set in 1949, 2 years after the events of the first film.

Ryunosuke Kamiki & Minami Hamabe tell us their first reactions to seeing King Ghidorah in ‘GODZILLA MINUS ZERO’. “Watching the different scenes where Godzilla and King Ghidorah go head to head, I could already feel that it’s something the fans were really going to want.” https://t.co/S7cv3o11xy

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) November 6, 2026

If the actors felt fans would be thrilled, early reviews suggest the monster delivers. King Ghidorah appears early in a terrifying opening sequence that wipes out an entire town, and this version has an awe-inspiring design that feels familiar yet is cranked up to 11.

The battles are brutal, too. Godzilla and Ghidorah endure several gruesome, bloody battles that escalate across land and sky. After Godzilla was destroyed at the end of the first film, Japanese residents assumed the worst was over, but Godzilla soon returns as well.

Godzilla lives! Face the monsters in the historic, critically acclaimed epic #GodzillaMinusZero, in theatres & IMAX nationwide. #FilmedForIMAX Get tickets now. https://t.co/2Ktmma6fOa https://t.co/Ku73umnqX0

— GODZILLA.OFFICIAL (@Godzilla_Toho) November 5, 2026

Not every review has been glowing. The Boston Globe called it a bigger, darker, R-rated sequel and a thrilling follow-up, while the San Francisco Chronicle gave it 2 stars, arguing that it lacks the thrill and heart of the original and goes through long stretches without the giant monsters on screen.

The A.V. Club landed somewhere in the middle, saying ‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ is not a bad movie and is an above-average Godzilla film, even if what once felt revelatory now feels repetitive.

The sequel is also making history off screen. Toho released it in Japan on November 3, a date that marks the original theatrical release of Godzilla in 1954, with the North American release through GKids following on November 6. It’s the first time a Godzilla film has opened so close together in Japan and North America.

The film also broke new technical ground, as it’s the first Japanese production filmed for IMAX. It’s rated R and runs 2 hours and 15 minutes. With 2 iconic monsters colliding on the biggest screens available, Kamiki and Hamabe’s prediction may well come true when audiences see the showdown for themselves.

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