Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire has done very well at the box office, but Adam Wingard reportedly won’t be back for the next one.
It’s clear that audiences just love big ole monsters duking it out, as Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire surpassed $563 million at the box office earlier this week, positioning it to take the top spot in the MonsterVerse’s rankings (Kong: Skull Island took home $568 million at the box office). But money isn’t everything, as The Hollywood Reporter has claimed that Wingard won’t be back for another sequel, despite being interested in having more stories to tell in that world. This is apparently because Wingard is now attached to direct the A24 project Onslaught, an action thriller, where he’ll be working with his regular work partner Simon Barrett (they made You’re Next and The Guest together).
The Hollywood Reporter claims that with Wingard set to shoot this next, this didn’t fit into Legendary’s plans to quickly move on to another instalment in its MonsterVerse. An earlier hint that Wingard had split off from directing the next entry is that the sequel has attached Dave Callaham, best known for writing Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and co-writing Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Now, according to THR’s sources, the split between Wingard and Legendary is official. This obviously leaves Legendary looking for a new director, but if it’s looking to get moving quickly, it probably won’t be long before someone gets attached.
Last year saw the first new Japanese-made Godzilla movie since 2016’s Shin Godzilla with Godzilla Minus One, a more serious and grounded take compared to its western counterpart. That doesn’t mean Godzilla x Kong was a bad thing – Fran noted that while it could still do with a “bit of ground-level drama and chaos” to help make “all the mayhem feel more tangible, I can’t help but marvel at this almost pitch-perfect distillation of Godzilla’s zanier and more fantastical adventures and the evolution of this iteration of Kong as an ’80s action hero on an Arthurian journey.” There’s a little something for everyone when it comes to giant monster movies these days.