Dan Stevens likens his working relationship with Adam Wingard to Rutger Hauer and Paul Verhoeven’s

Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire brought American audiences into the fun schlock that defined a run of the Godzilla movies which is called the “Showa era.” This era is basically what people think of when you bring up Godzilla because it’s all about the giant monster battles. The movies are also usually given an out-there, psychedelic plot that drives the monsters into fighting each other. Godzilla X Kong was a smashing success at the box office and has the studio confident in its upcoming plans for sequels. Legendary’s chairman, Mary Parent, would state, “This (box office) is certainly an exciting result. We are in a good position to continue the journey, but let’s see how Godzilla x Kong unfolds. These are early days, but we are certainly feeling good.“

The director of Godzilla X Kong, Adam Wingard, brought in his trusted writer, Simon Barrett for this installment. Both would also aim to reunite with their star from their breakout film, Dan Stevens of 2014’s The Guest, for this big-budget epic. Stevens recently spoke with Variety, where he outlines that reuniting with Wingard was as easy as two friends getting together. Their planned continued collaboration has Stevens comparing their partnership with one Rutger Hauer had with director Paul Verhoeven. “You could see them go, ‘Oh, we’re going to do a medieval epic now, or we’re going to do an intense domestic drama now… it was just point a stick and go, ‘Let’s make one of those,’” Stevens says. Stevens would then hint that Wingard teased that he has a juicy role in mind for him in a new script with Barrett. Could it be Face/Off 2?

Wingard knew he needed Stevens to make his character in Godzilla X Kong, Trapper, instantly likable and says his “secret sauce” was his ability to make any character he played feel trustworthy. Wingard explained, “No matter whether they’re a villain or a hero, there’s something about the charisma of Dan Stevens that makes everybody, young or old, like him. And of all the actors I’ve worked with, he’s the one that most casual filmgoers are familiar with, I think because he’s done so many different types of things.”

Additionally, Wingard himself is also excited about the reception of Godzilla X Kong as he looks forward to more, “There’s always the seduction of making a trilogy out of it, and I think that there’s some untapped areas to go into. There’s also ways to continue to innovate the stylized approach to the MonsterVerse, and what’s great about the MonsterVerse is that it’s allowed so many different directors to approach it with their unique style and color palette.“