It appears thatGodzilla 2not only has new writers, but may also have a new director now as well. Legendary and Warner Bros. announced the follow-up shortly after the release of the swell 2014 rebootGodzilla, noting that they were more than happy to wait forGareth Edwardsto complete his directing duties onRogue One: A Star Wars Story. However, earlier this year in the midst of rumors about production difficulties onRogue One, Edwardsdropped out ofGodzilla 2, leaving the sequel’s director’s chair vacant.
The follow-up is key to an interconnected universe that Warner Bros. is building, which will continue with next summer’sKong: Skull Islandand culminate in a bigGodzilla vs. Kongmovie in 2020. We got some movement onGodzilla 2yesterday with the news thatKrampusscreenwritersMichael DoughertyandZach Shieldswould be penning the script forGodzilla 2, and nowScreenCrushis reporting that not only is Dougherty co-writing the film, he’s also directing it.
Dougherty first made a splash as co-writer on the terrificX-Men 2, working once again with directorBryan Singeras co-writer onSuperman Returns. From there, however, Dougherty moved on to make his directorial debut with the now cult-classic horror anthology filmTrick ‘r Treat. The Halloween-themed pic has become a seasonal staple, and Dougherty made his long-awaited return to the director’s chair last year with the Christmas-themed horror filmKrampus, produced by Legendary.
Legendary is apparently big fans of Dougherty’s after his work onKrampus. A few years ago, they announced that they were finally moving forward withTrick ‘r Treat 2…sometime after Dougherty madeKrampus. But now if Dougherty is directingGodzilla 2, it seems doubtful we’re going to see theTrick ‘r Treatsequel anytime soon.
Along with the news of Dougherty and Shields writingGodzilla 2yesterday, we also learned that Warner Bros. is mulling the prospect of opening a writer’s room to develop ideas for this shared universe. This is a new trend in Hollywood and was put to use by Paramount to developTransformerssequels and spinoffs, and the idea is to bring a bunch of writers together to develop the upcoming Godzilla-King Kong universe. The decision hasn’t been made just yet, and it’s unclear if this would create even more spinoffs than justGodzillaandKing Kongsequels, but it does seem to be the way a lot of studios are going about creating franchises.
We should hear more fairly soon as Warner Bros. continues post-production onSkull Island.Godzilla 2is already slated for release on July 30, 2025.
