Gareth Edwards brought a strong visual sensibility and serious tone to Godzilla, Warner Bros.’ 2014 reboot of Toho’s city-stomping kaiju franchise. It was impressive enough that he immediately jumped to making the Star Wars prequel Rogue One. But he won’t be returning to crush San Francisco once again in Godzilla 2.
According to Variety, Edwards is, unsurprisingly, just a little exhausted after taking on two enormous movies back to back and wants to make something a bit smaller for a while. Likely helping his decision was the fact that Godzilla 2 was pushed back to 2019, meaning Edwards would be working on it for nearly five years.
It’s also going to be an ambitious movie, introducing other Toho monsters such as Mothra and Rodan to the reboot’s continuity, right on the heels of bringing King Kong into the mix as well with King Kong Vs. Godzilla arriving in 2018. So that’s a lot of moving parts to juggle and a lot of effects to oversee, and one can see Edwards wanting to take a vacation. The good news is that, with a 2019 release date, Godzilla 2 is still likely on the way, and in fact will be taking up the same spot on the release schedule that Batman v Superman had this year in late March. And of course, it might just be he wants another crack at Star Wars; with the way Rogue One is shaping up, Disney might want a Rogue Two.
(via Variety)
