Shortly after Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla scored $93.2 million during its opening weekend run, Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. revealed that a sequel was in development.  Two months later they made Godzilla 2 official at San Diego Comic-Con and now we’ve got a release date to go along with it – June 8, 2018.

At the moment, Godzilla 2 has that June 8, 2018 slot all to itself, but summer 2018 is a long way away, so it’ll probably get some company as we get closer.  Hit the jump for more on the Godzilla 2 release date.  The first film is actually still playing in a handful of theaters and stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Bryan Cranston, Elizabeth Olsen, Sally Hawkins, Ken Watanabe, Juliette Binoche and David Strathairn.

No one wants to wait four years for a sequel, but Edwards needs the time.  It was announced in San Diego that Edwards will return to direct the next film, so with his Star Wars stand-alone movie due to hit theaters on December 16, 2016, there was probably just no choice, but to go with a much later date.  Four years may seem like a lot of time now, but with two massive properties like these, Edwards is going to have his hands quite full for a while now.

As Legendary CEO Thomas Tull revealed at the Warner Bros. Hall H panel, Godzilla will encounter the mutated pterosaur Rodan, the moth-like Mothra and the three-headed Ghidorah along the way.