Godzilla Minus Zero Has Two Cameos Only Hardcore Franchise Fans Noticed

The following post contains brief spoilers for "Godzilla Minus Zero."

"Godzilla Minus Zero" is pure Godzilla spectacle. This is a bigger, badder king of the monsters that's not without its flaws, but nevertheless offers enough spectacle and kaiju action to make it a thrilling cinematic experience. Sure, we've had plenty of kaiju movies the past decade, but few manage to get anywhere near the scope or scale that Takashi Yamazaki offers in his follow-up to the Oscar-winning "Godzilla Minus One."

One of the things that makes this movie special is how it expands the world of the previous Godzilla. By bringing in King Ghidorah (whose design unfortunately leaked online before the film's release), the movie throws open the doors to all sorts of Toho kaiju. It's significant that it's Ghidorah who becomes Godzilla's first foe here, because the three-headed alien dragon that shoots gravity-affecting lightning is such a weird creature that it allows for pretty much anything to follow him. From here, you could easily do Mechagodzilla, or Mothra, or even Gigan.

That being said, "Godzilla Minus Zero" remains a surprisingly grounded and human movie even if it deals with extraterrestrial threats. This is a film with some of the most harrowing kaiju imagery in decades, as it shows how truly horrific the aftermath of a Godzilla attack would actually be. It's unlike any Godzilla movie we've had in this new era. This feels like classic Godzilla without trying to reinvent the wheel, and it feels more grounded than the bonkers and silly MonsterVerse.

Which is why it's funny that this movie features two cameos from two very different corners of the Godzilla franchise — cameos only hardcore fans will notice. Specifically, the film features cameos from directors Hideaki Anno and Jordan Vogt-Roberts.

Hideaki Anno is a legend of anime, having created the groundbreaking and hugely influential "Neon Genesis Evangelion." But Anno is above all else a massive nerd who's spent the past decade bringing every one of his childhood obsessions to life on the big screen, starting with "Shin Godzilla," and then with "Shin Ultraman" and "Shin Kamen Rider." Anno's "Shin Godzilla" was a revelation, a political satire about the failures of government to respond to a crisis that also happened to feature a terrifying Godzilla.

Anno has a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo in "Godzilla Minus Zero" when Koichi and Noriko leave Tokyo and are on a train south. The camera lingers for less than a second on a man reading a newspaper containing news of Ghidorah's attack. That man is the legend behind "Shin Godzilla."

Jordan Vogt-Roberts' cameo comes at the very end of the film when a group of American soldiers capture professor Murakami. What makes his cameo interesting is that Vogt-Roberts has not actually directed a Godzilla project. Instead, he's best known for directing "Kong: Skull Island," which is a very fun take on a kaiju movie and is part of the MonsterVerse, but doesn't actually feature the King of the Monsters himself.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, director "Godzilla Minus Zero" director Takashi Yamazaki explained how Vogt-Roberts ended up in the final film.

"Jordan makes quite frequent trips to Japan. During one of his trips, he reached out to us, and we set up a dinner," Yamazaki said. "That's when he said, 'Hey, I'd really love to be in the next Godzilla movie you're working on.' And I said, 'Well, if you're in Japan, perhaps there's a scene we could work you into.'"

"Godzilla Minus One" is in theaters now.