‘Godzilla x Kong’ Sequel Needs a New Director

The MonsterVerse will continue without the man who has directed its last two movies.

That’s Adam Wingard, the filmmaker behind 2021 Godzilla vs. Kong and this year’s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. He will not return to direct the next kaiju blockbuster in the series. Work has already begun on the movie’s screenplay.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Wingard and Legendary’s split was “amicable” and was mostly due to Wingard turning his attention to another project outside the MonsterVerse; an original genre movie called Onslaught that A24 is planning to release in the fall.

Warner Bros.

Wingard’s role in the creating the next MonsterVerse movie already looked doubtful in early May when it was revealed that Legendary had hired someone else to begin working on the script for the sequel to Godzilla x Kong (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ Dave Callaham). Now it is reportedly a done deal.

Wingard’s work prior to his MonsterVerse movies includes The Guest, You’re Next, Death Note, and the 2016 Blair Witch sequel.

To date, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire has grossed $563 million, edging past Kong: Skull Island to become the highest-grossing movie in the entire MonsterVerse franchise. (The other two titles in the series are 2014’s Godzilla and 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters.) Combined, Wingard’s two MonsterVerse movies have grossed more than $1 billion — and that’s despite the fact that Godzilla vs. Kong was released during the pandemic, and was available on streaming simultaneously with its theatrical debut.

At present, there are no details on the plot of the next Godzilla x Kong film. Wingard’s movies had the two title characters alternately battling and teaming up to protect Earth (and Hollow Earth) from a variety of other kaiju-sized threats.