Back in the spring, director Gareth Edwards dropped out of the director’s chair for the upcoming Godzilla 2. Although he had directed the 2014 English-language monster movie, he moved on to the equally high profile Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and it was speculated that perhaps the director just wanted to move onto a project that was not so high stakes. After five months, Legendary has finally found their replacement for the job in Krampus director Michael Dougherty.
Dougherty was already involved with the project when it was announced earlier last week that he and Krampus co-writer Zach Shields were being brought on to script the Godzilla sequel.
Screen Crush, who broke the story, is stating that it is not yet known if Doughtery and Shields will be using the idea that Edwards was developing which would see the introduction of the robotic Mechagodzilla into the sequel or if the writers will be going off in their own direction.
If it sounds a bit worrying that they don’t even have a screenplay in place for Godzilla 2, you can relax. The film is not due in theaters until March 22, 2019. In between now and then, Legendary will be bringing us Kong: Skull Island, which actually serves as the next installment of what the studio is hoping to be an interconnected giant monster franchise of films. The two monsters will meet up for Godzilla vs. Kong in 2020. Variety suggests that the hiring of Dougherty and Shields could also be the first step in Legendary setting up a writers room-like think tank to help steer the overall course of their giant monster franchise.
