Gareth Edwards Won’t Return to Direct ‘Godzilla 2’

When Legendary’s latest version of Godzilla opened to big box office back in 2014, the studio was quick to move ahead on a sequel with the first film’s director, Gareth Edwards, back to direct the film. But then progress stalled. Edwards went off to make Rogue One. Legendary announced that they were making a King Kong film, Kong: Skull Island, and that Kong and Godzilla would clash in Godzilla vs. Kong (provided that neither Godzilla nor Kong’s mom is named Martha). Godzilla 2 was bumped back to 2019, a long time between installments in the sequel-minded world of modern Hollywood. I mean I know Godzilla is really big and tends to move slowly, but this is really slowly.

So perhaps it’s not surprising to learn from Deadline that Gareth Edwards will actually not return to make Godzilla 2. Deadline claims the split was “an amicable one.” As for the reason why Edwards won’t be back to tell the continuing story of the world’s largest and crankiest fire-breathing dinosaur:

Edwards has his own gestating projects he wanted to pursue, and they are smaller in scale than the back-to-back tentpole-size pictures he is directing with the Godzillalaunch and then the Star Wars spinoff.

I guess when Godzilla movies are concerned size really does matter. [drops mic] [drops computer] [kicks over desk] [walks off into the sunset forever]

I know I’m in the minority, but I wasn’t a huge fan of Edwards’ Godzilla. The title monster was great, the big fight at the end was great, but just about every human character besides Bryan Cranston (who’s role was disappointingly small) was a huge disappointment, particularly Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s bland hero, Sgt. Joe Exposition. (I’m sure he had an actual name, but for the life of me I can’t remember it.) Maybe a fresh start with a new set of eyes (and a new non-Godzilla cast) is a good thing leading up to that big rumble with King Kong.

Godzilla 2 is currently scheduled to open in theaters on March 22, 2019. In the meantime, we can continue to anticipate Toho’s Godzilla Resurgence.