Gareth Edwards No Longer Directing Godzilla 2

Posted by on May 14th, 2016   Filed under: Action, Horror, Industry News
Source: Deadline

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Earlier this week, Warner Brothers announced that they would be delaying their upcoming Godzilla sequel, pushing it back from June 8, 2018 to March 22, 2019. While no reason for the delay was given, some thought it may have been a strategic move to avoid a showdown with Transformers 6. However, since then a much more likely explanation has come to light: Gareth Edwards has stepped down as director of the film. Hit the jump to find out what else we know.

According to Deadline, Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures are in search of a new director for Godzilla 2 now that Gareth Edwards has officially left the project. Edwards directed the first Godzilla movie for them, which made $529 million worldwide. He is currently directing Rogue One: A Star Wars Story which is likely to be an even bigger hit for him.

The departure is said to have been an amicable one and will allow Edwards to pursue some smaller projects again. His career took off after he made Monsters back in 2010 for less than $500,000. It would appear that he wants to get back to doing something in that vein, possibly a mystery sci-fi project he was said to be working on with Timur Bekmambetov. Are you disappointed by this news or are you more excited to see smaller, original movies from Gareth Edwards? Who would you like to see direct Godzilla 2?



  • For big budget the mind goes straight to Guillermo del Toro, but that’s bit on the nose, so I’d like to see something smaller with David Robert Mitchell, the director of It Follows doing something with this. Even if he continued with that throwback 80’s vibe it could be a great angle.
    But probably there will be a less interesting ‘jobber’ director at this point, script’s done etc. So here comes McG to tie this package up, or maybe Zack Snyder will fall out of the DC Universe and takes this on. If we’re goin’ jobber, lets go with a Neill Blomkamp/ Sharlto Copley combo for this, make it happen!

  • 1138sw

    I somewhat enjoyed Godzilla but thought it was seriously flawed with very few exciting “wow me” moments. I actually thought it was flawed in the same way the “War of the Worlds” was with Tom Cruise…great narrative possibilities but really missed opportunities that would have elevated the storytelling.

    As For Monsters I just could not get into that movie…but I do think that was mostly due to the screenplay and not necessarily Edwards direction.

    So I for one won’t be missing Edwards much.