Still rearing its head: Godzilla and our enduring love of the Japanese monster 

The recent return of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is just one example of the staying power of the Godzilla story. Self-confessed fan Ed Power delves into the lore of a tale that has origins in Japan's wartime trauma 

Godzilla Minus One gave the Godzilla series its first Oscar.

Giant monsters have been doing a roaring trade on the big screen for decades — but recently their popularity has undergone a huge growth spurt. In 2021, Hollywood enjoyed one of its first post-pandemic smashes with the two-hour smackdown that was Godzilla vs Kong — the heartwarming story of a giant lizard tangling with a huge gorilla on land, sea and across some of Hong Kong’s most expensive real estate.

Then in 2024, Godzilla — the marauding big boss of monster movies since the 1950s — won its first-ever Oscar for the acclaimed Godzilla Minus One, where the metaphor of a giant lizard was a stand-in for Japan’s post-war trauma. As if to remind us that you can’t keep a big thing down, Godzilla then punched its way to another success with the English-language hit Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.