Bryan Cranston come back in a sequel but play different character

Its not just that I dont see it happening, its because it cant happen. For many movie-goers who dont now much and just watch it because "it looks cool" will be confused as in these times it isnt the best thing to do. He will most likely come back as Joe Brody as he might be alive [The body bag closed on a stunt double when I looked closer]

The difference between Cranston reappearing and those other actors you listed is that the Godzilla films of the Showa series had very little continuity involved.

The next film will probably aim to have closer ties with the 2014 movie and American audiences aren't used to having familiar actors show up in different roles in the same franchise. (Unless it's Star Trek.)

^

Or the old Planet of the Apes movies.

Only if he's a MUTO. 

I don't know about him being re-cast as a different character, but maybe they could have archive footage of Joe before his death in the sequel, just like how each of the Saw movies still had archive/flashback footage of Jigsaw after his death (Amanda Young, too). That way, we still get a little bit of his vigor that we sorely missed once he died 40 minutes into the first movie, which many will openly tell you that's a flaw they acknowledged with the first film, myself included.