Adam Wingard Not Returning for ‘Godzilla x Kong’ Sequel (Exclusive)

Adam Wingard

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Godzilla and Kong have smashed their last building for Adam Wingard. At least for now.

Wingard, who has directed the last two of Legendary’s hit MonsterVerse movies, will not be returning for a third installment, multiple sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.

The parting of ways is described as amicable and stemming from timing issues. The door remains open for a future return, per insiders.

Wingard is coming off directing and co-writing Godzilla x Kong: New Empire, which has grossed over $564 million worldwide since its March 29 domestic opening. Wingard, who didn’t have a deal for any new installment, intoned he had more stories to tell during the press tour but also unveiled a new original feature project that he wanted to tackle before another monster movie. That project, an action thriller titled Onslaught, was picked up in a competitive sale by A24 and is prepping for a fall shoot.

That didn’t fit into Legendary’s plan to move swiftly onto the next monster tag team. Although it signaled it would like to see Wingard return to the director’s chair, his return was looking dubious when the company hired Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings scribe Dave Callaham to begin penning a new script a week or two later. This week the parting of ways was made official, according to sources.

Legendary now goes on to start fresh for its next monster movie. It is unclear whether it will continue to explore concepts such as Hollow Earth  — the idea that vast subterranean worlds exist inside the Earth — and characters such as the adventurous vet played by Dan Stevens that were introduced by Wingard.

Wingard, for his part, leaves the franchise on a high note. Godzilla x Kong is about to become the highest-grossing of the five MonsterVerse movies and will likely snatch that title from 2017’s Kong: Skull Island, which peaked at $568 million, this weekend. It may also be one of the most profitable (if not the single most profitable) of the five movies in the series, as it only cost $135 million.

Wingard’s initial Godzilla entry was Godzilla vs Kong, which was released during the Covid-19 pandemic both theatrically and on streaming service HBO Max (now known as Max). The movie still grossed over $100 million domestically and $470 million worldwide and was among the movies credited for “saving cinema” during bleak theatrical times.