'Godzilla 2' has lost its director according to Deadline Hollywood. Gareth Edwards claims that he is departing the American franchise he helped reboot in 2014 so that he can go back to working on smaller projects. The split with Warner Bros. is supposedly on good terms and the agreement was settled before the decision to push back the film for March 22, 2019. Max Borenstein wrote the latest version of the screenplay and WB is already searching for a director to replace Edwards.
This makes sense as the director is just finishing up 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' and the idea of rushing right into pre-production on another shared-universe tentpole film probably seemed incredibly daunting.
The big question is who will they get to replace him? Edwards had an amazing visual style when it came to shooting building-sized action, but rubbed fans the wrong way with his slow creature reveals and "less is more" approach with Godzilla himself. I'd love to see someone come in and be confident enough with the monsters to let them lead the story and action beats. Legendary and WB now have the rights to Rodan, King Ghidorah, Mothra, and several other Toho classic kaiju, so we should have a proper "versus" film with the sequel.
I really want to see some discussion from our audience on who should take over the reigns. My vote? Matt Reeves. He's shown that he can handle amazing giant monster action with 2008's 'Cloverfield,' while not letting the human characters in that film fall into generic and bland background caricatures. I also truly believe his work in 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' was stunning and that he gave real life to fictional creatures with independent personalities and instincts.
Who would you have step up to the plate?