There has been a lot of chatter about Sony being in talks to acquire the Japanese conglomerate, Kadokawa Corporation, and a lot of the chatter is surrounded by the anime and video game communities. This news broke out on the night of November 19th by Reuters.
Kadokawa owns the video game developer FromSoftware who are known for big name titles such as Dark Souls, Elden Ring, Bloodborne, Sekiro, Dragon Ball Z: Sparking Zero, and Armored Core. On top of that, they are known for anime such as Your Name, KonoSuba, Rise of the Shield Hero, Overlord, and many others under Kadokawa's roster.
Sony's big plan here is to mainly buy on the anime and video game sector of Kadokawa, but early discussions between the two companies show that in order for Sony to acquire the gaming and anime sectors they would need to buy all of Kadokawa and the IPs that they own and this includes buying Kadokawa Daiei, which own the Gamera franchise.
Currently, fans are not looking at this as an opportunity to bring back the giant turtle seeing what Sony is really interested in. Sony does own CrunchyRoll and Funimation, as well. So by buying Kadokawa there would be quite a powerhouse of a company that just dominates the anime sector. On top of that, Sony is currently partnered with Legendary Entertainment, the production studio behind the Monsterverse films.
If (and that is a big IF) Sony does buy Kadokawa and find out Gamera is among the IPs they own they can go to Legendary and ask if they would like to add this monster in the Monsterverse. The Monsterverse is really the second highest grossing cinematic universe with Marvel coming in at number one. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire has made $571 MILLION in the worldwide box office, which is the highest grossing Monsterverse film in the franchise. Furthermore, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters was the one of the most watched shows on Apple TV+ and the second season is currently in production. Following up with that there are a couple other Monsterverse shows in the works for Apple TV and the sixth film is in the works for 2027.
However, we all know Gamera is not a big name monster like King Kong and Godzilla. Godzilla and Kong in the Monsterverse already fill that role that Gamera has been known for. Godzilla is already filling the role as protector of the planet whereas Kong fills that role of protecting humans. We also have Mothra who is a built up as a deity of sorts in the Monsterverse, as well. So we have three guardian monsters in this cinematic universe already. The question would be what difference would Gamera make if introduced into the Monsterverse? How is he different from Godzilla, Kong, or Mothra?
As for Sony's partnership with Legendary Entertainment, they did announce recently that the two studios are going to end their partnership after this year, according to The Hollywood Reporter. During their partnership, only two movies from Legendary were made and Sony had distributed: The Machine and The Book of Clarence, both movies that were made with a really low budget and still bombed in the box office. They do have two movies that are in development. Animal Friends is expected to release August 25, 2025 while there is not much movement with Street Fighter. Afterwards, that is it. Sony is not interested in planing any more projects with Legendary after this year. This would make any chances of Gamera being added into the Monsterverse very unlikely. Especially since Sony seems more eager on focusing on video games and anime.
Lastly, Gamera has proven time and time again that it is not worth the financial risk. The turtle managed to make the original parent studio (Daiei Co.) to go bankrupt and be sold off to Kadokawa and then Kadokawa tried to revive Gamera twice with Gamera: The Brave and Gamera: Rebirth with not much luck in gaining any interest. Gamera: The Brave was released at a time when the Godzilla boom of the Millenium series killed all interest in kaiju movies with the yearly releases and there has been no word on Gamera: Rebirth on whether the anime was successful or not. The anime did give Gamera a little recognition by being added to the "Godzilla: Battle Line" mobile game, but that is about it. Otherwise, there does not seem to be a whole lot of confidence in the monster.
Today (November 27th) does mark the 59th anniversary of Gamera and there has been nothing announced from Kadokawa. They are just releasing the Heisei movie trilogy on Japanese YouTube for a limited time. That is all. It is the same as previous years when they released the same three movies to Japanese theaters in 4K for a limited time. This is mainly due to those three movies being the only Gamera movies that actually sells and are the most popular with fans and casual audience. Could Kadokawa announce something for Gamera next year since it will be the 60th anniversary? Who knows. We will have to wait and see. Maybe Sony will convince them to do a movie, but I wouldn't count on anything until then.
What are your thoughts on Sony wanting to purchase Kadokawa? Do you think this will be good for Gamera or perhaps not? Leave a comment in the comments section of your thoughts on this and make sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Minds, MeWe, and TRUTH Social to stay up to date for more news, reviews, and discussions.