The director of the last two Godzilla and Kong movies has opted to not return for a third, as Adam Wingard focuses on other projects.
Given that Adam Wingard has a film slate that is dauntingly long, it was always pretty clear that something would have to give. As well as a presumed third instalment in the Godzilla and Kong joined franchise (feel free to join those two names with a Vs or an X or whatever works for you), the in-demand director has a laundry list of other projects.
There’s a sequel to John Woo’s beloved 1997 action movie, Face/Off that we know is in the works. That one seems to be gathering a little pace too, with reports emerging last month stating that both Nicolas Cage and John Travolta are willing to reprise their roles from the original film. We’d imagine that Wingard might want to move quickly on that one given that Cage was talking about retiring from filmmaking not so long ago.
However, ahead of that one in the queue is Onslaught. At least, that’s what The Hollywood Reporter claimed earlier this month when reporting that the ‘gonzo action horror thriller’ that Wingard has signed up to make for A24 would be his next project.
Also, don’t forget that somewhere in the pipeline for Wingard, there’s a Thundercats movie too. Fans of the 1980s animated series might have to wait a while for that one though as it looks to be the least likely to make it into production next.
Bottom line: he’s decided to move away from Godzilla and Kong, to work on the rest of his slate.
The split between Legendary Entertainment and Wingard was said to be very amicable and we can imagine that was the case. New Empire, his most recent Monsterverse movie performed well commercially and Legendary is clearly keen to push quickly ahead with another installment. Shang Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings scribe Dave Callaham was hired some time ago to pen the script so Wingard’s desire to fit another film (or two) in between installments simply didn’t align with Legendary’s schedule.
When a new Monsterverse director is announced, we’ll let you know right here.
