Currently busy in the post-production phase of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, it had looked like director Gareth Edwards would leap from that to the Godzilla sequel as Warner Bros. and Legendary continued to build their giant monster franchise up. But Edwards has now jumped ship from the 'Zilla vessel, and the monster creature feature is in need of a new director.
Still, there is plenty of time to find one, as Godzilla 2 recently shifted release dates to March 22, 2019, so it's not as though anyone is in a mad scramble to start production. Not much is known about the sequel, at least officially, though Max Borenstein's script is expected to include more monster action, likely with some of the classic threats from Toho Studios' back catalogue. Mothra, anyone? Gamera, meanwhile, is on the phone to his agent, demanding a meeting.
Warners is looking to build its own monster series with the sequel leading into Godzilla Vs. Kong (which, unless the Kong: Skull Island version of the giant ape is considerably bigger, will be a very short scrap), currently targeting a May 20, 2020 release, itself without a director yet.
According to Deadline, there was no animosity between Edwards and the studios; he simply wants to focus on his own original projects, something a little smaller in scale than two giant franchise entries one after the other. Among them, a script called Forever that has a child in a future world ruled by robots searching for the origin of the human race. Rogue One, meanwhile, is out here on December 16. Find all you need to know about it here.