Adam Wingard Will Not Direct Next Monsterverse Film Written By David Callaham
It’s a Godzilla/Kong minus one director and storycrafter but a neutral gain on writer
There’s a behemoth of new creative voices coming to Legendary and Warner Bros. Pictures’s Monsterverse. The next installment after Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire will not only have a new writer in David Callaham, but a new director, as Adam Wingard will not be returning.
Writing this next installment is actually a return for Callaham, as he wrote the early drafts for 2014’s Godzilla, directed by Gareth Edwards and starring Elizabeth Olsen, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ken Watanabe, which started this American Monsteverse. In fact, enough remained that he earned story by credit. He also began the Expendables franchise by writing the original movie, and since Godzilla has written the 2021 Mortal Kombat reboot and dabbled in both DC and Marvel with Wonder Woman 1984 and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, extending to animation as he co-wrote Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which earned a best animated feature Academy Award nomination and won the equivalent Annie Award. He is currently working on its sequel, the still-undated Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, with Phil Lord & Chris Miller, his co-writers on Across.
As for Wingard, who directed A New Empire and 2021’s preceding Godzilla vs. Kong, creating The New Empire’s story with frequent collaborator Simon Barrett as well as Terry Rossio the writing’s been on the wall. Even when Callaham’s hiring was reported eleven days before Wingard officially stepped away, it was said that he was intent on making Onslaught this fall for A24 before anything else. Thus, when the exit was confirmed, it was described as amicable and very much a timing issue, that Legendary wanted to move fast with this next movie. Sounds like they’re looking for a 2026 release. It is so completely not a severance that he can return if such opportunity arises. It’s apparently too early to tell if this new phase will continue with the subterranean Hollow Earth or the characters featured thus far.
The Monsterverse has been very fruitful for Legendary, with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, grossing over $564 million globally, creeping up on 2017’s Kong: Skull Island, which earned $568 million. Still in theaters, The New Empire could become one of the most profitable, if not attain the top spot, having only cost $135 million.
