Joe Brody in Godzilla 2, Could it work?

Based on how the character was handled in the first movie I'm gonna go with no. He wasn't even allowed to make it halfway through the first movie. Sad really, since he was by far the best character in Godzilla 2014. 

Best to just scrap the Brody family and move on with a new, hopefully better cast that is actually likable, or has a point.

^I think that's what's likely to happen at this point. There's literally no momentum from the first movie going in to the second movie right now and I completely expect Godzilla 2 to have stronger ties with Skull Island than I do Godzilla '14.

Godzilla '14 was a good, not great, but solid good movie. Yet I don't think it will be remembered as well even in Legendary's pantheon of giant monster flicks coming up. It seems the real emphasis will be on Skull Island > Godzilla 2 (should it happen) > Godzilla vs. Kong.

Right now there's a lot riding on Skull Island and I'd recommend every G-Fan to support if only for the sake of Godzilla 2. I'm not particularly in fear of it getting canned, but I can see an alternate scenario where Legendary simply decides to jump from Skull Island straight into Godzilla vs. Kong.

Man2887, I see your point. It really would be a shame if the Kong vs. Godzilla film was prioritized over Godzilla 2, especially since Godzilla 2 is really aiming to be more ambitious than a simple versus movie, bringing in three other classic kaiju. 

Back to the question of Brody. I feel like what people wanted when they first saw the marketing of Godzilla 2014. The idea that formed there was a monster disaster with Cranston's character being the mastermind who unfolds it...while sounding like a crazy conspirator. Godzilla and crazy Cranston. We got a minimal amount of both in Godzilla 2014. Would it be beneficial to just give the audience what they wanted to begin with? Maybe Godzilla doesn't need the Brody family, maybe just Joe Brody. His death was abrupt and vague.  

Nope. That ship sailed when they zipped the body bag. I'm in agreement about moving on to a totally new cast/characters, save for Watanabe's character and his trusty sidekick. The less connection to the first movie, the better.

^I think we could stand to lose Dr. Graham. Sally Hawkins was pretty much wasted in a role where all she had to do was haphazardly ask short questions and vague exclamations that set up Serizawa for brooding, short replies.

"Is it possible? Is it him?"
"No. This is much older."

"A different sex?"
"A female."

"It can't be! It's impossible! We ran tests for years! You confirmed it yourself! It was dormant!"
"Not anymore."

For some reason it reminded me of all those scenes in the Heisei series where Miki would gasp, touch her temple and the camera would push for a close up before she uttered, "Godzilla!" And then we'd cut to a shot of Godzilla already trouncing Tokyo. Thanks Miki. How would we have ever known?

I'm more interested in seeing Serizawa on his own. I think it would give his character more room for exploration.

^I agree. I'm fine with salvaging Serizawa and Vivian or not, only because they were the only slightly redeemable characters after Joe Brody bought it, but that's very faint praise. If one or both didn't come back I wouldn't be sad. Let's be honest, you had (mostly) a cast of incredibly talented actors that were wasted. David Strathairn? Juliette Binoche? Are you kidding me? When I saw the heavy hitters they had lined up for this, I thought, "Wow, they mean business!" I was wrong. I'm hoping they can get a decent director for the next one (if it happens). I'm looking forward to someone else's take on it. Edwards was fantastic about building suspense and tension with no real payoff through the whole damn movie! He had his shot and we got what we got. I'm hoping they bring in other writers as well. Time to move on. Watch the first 35 minutes of the movie, then go to YouTube and watch all the monster scenes and you've seen the best of this movie.

I will note, I think Strathairn's Stentz was a very admirable character. He did pretty much what I expected, bark orders and plan strategies away from the action, but it was interesting that he wasn't belligerent toward Serizawa. In fact he valued his opinion very much. He could have come off as far more stereotypical and I appreciate that he was more composed and empathetic.

Compare that, for example, to Stephen Lang's over-the-top character from Avatar who was just a mean military dude for the sake of being a mean military dude. In that regard I thought Godzilla '14 handled this archetype surprisingly well.

TBH the most offensive thing about Godzilla 2014 wasn't the lack of monster action, but the lack of interesting characters after the 30 minute mark. 

If Joe Brody wasn't in this movie at all, chances are it would be in my bottom 10 G-movies.

^I can get behind that comment.

I always wondered what fan reaction would be toward Godzilla '14 had it been shot-for-shot the same movie, but Toho produced with tokusatsu and Japanese actors. Just to put things in perspective. I don't imagine it would be a highly acclaimed film among the fandom.

Well anyone that was on this site prior to the 2014 release knows the hype and high expectations A LOT of fans had for it. The first Godzilla movie in a decade(following weak entries like Final Wars and the two Mechag movies helped with it at least comparably), with trailers focusing on Cranston fresh off Breaking Bad, and a hollywood backing seemingly out to prove the US could do Godzilla, and to their credit they did. I remember a bunch of threads that were posted asking for favorite Godzilla movies and characters and I saw Godzilla 2014 and its characters being listed solely off trailer buzz, and it wasn't even always the same people doing it.

Admittedly I too got wrapped up in the hype after seeing it. It was so fun to see a Godzilla movie on the big screen I put on the rose tinted glasses and thought it was great. I don't think I ever ranked it top 5, but right off the high of seeing it I might have had an idea it could be in the 9-10 spot. Rewatches weren't so kind to it, for me, after Cranston dies the movie kind of dies with him. We follow a blank slate to get to people who serve as a destination point with no real character, just attributes, and have Serizawa there to give exposition, with small shots of the monsters throughout. 

I have a feeling if toho made it the movie probably would have come out with reception closer to what G14 got once people got over the high and realized it was a pretty flawed movie, the movie is by no means horrible, but most of that is due to the first act starting so strongly, then seemingly hoping that gets you through the rest of the movie till the final fight. There were a lot of writers on the script so I often wonder if someone else wrote the first act and Borenstein just left it alone and tried to follow it up, since the character dropoff afterwards is so evident.

^Ditto to all. And yes. I recall people claiming it will be the greatest Godzilla movie ever made a good 5 months before its release. Funny how those people pretty much didn't come back after the movie was released.

In 10-20 years the movie might get a spike in popularity among rankings by western fans when the people introduced to Godzilla through this movie get older and nostalgia carries them through the tougher parts of the movie. Admittedly that seems to be the case for me, being born in 92, and having the heisei era being ingrained in my roots, and seeing most of the millennium movies after Godzilla 2000 to late in life to harbor any nostalgia for them, thus I don't give them the pass I do for movies like SpaceGodzilla and GvM92.

Oh nostalgia: dictating fanbases since the beginning of time