Godzilla Director Gareth Edwards Hired for ‘Star Wars’ Spinoff

Godzilla has been a big success for British director Gareth Edwards, who has now been hired by Disney to direct one of the forthcoming Star Wars spinoff movies.

The rage of Godzilla had reached a fever peak even before its release thanks to brilliant trailers and marketing on behalf of Warner Bros. The film is currently sitting at a comfortable $112 million as of yesterday, according to Box Office Mojo. Originally reported by The Hollywood Reporter, the success of the film and care to original King of Monsters was the perfect resume for Gareth Edwards, who now will now direct a Star Wars movie that is a dream for so many filmmakers.

Star Wars is receiving new life after the purchase by Disney with 3 new films and announced spinoff movies, the first to be Episode VII directed by J.J. Abrams. Much like The Avengers and the Disney owned Marvel properties which are seeing record breaking profits at the box office, Disney is hoping the same formula will work for one of the most beloved science fiction properties in history. Disney CEO Bob Iger stated that the plan was to release at least three spinoff movies in-between Episodes VII, VIII and IX.

Much like the well kept secret of the casting for Episode VII, the subjects of the spinoffs are shrouded in secrecy and it is unknown at this time which spinoff Gareth Edwards will be directing. Rumors have pointed to obvious choices and fan favorites such as Boba Fett and Yoda for subjects in the spinoff series. Our own Patrick Frye has put together a convincing argument that one of the movies will feature the death of Han Solo.

Directing a Star Wars spinoff will be a monster jump for Gareth Edwards, whose humble beginnings as a director stemmed from his work as a digital artist with End Day, a TV docudrama produced by the BBC for the National Geographic Channel focusing on various doomsday scenarios. His next feature film length project would be the $500,000 budget Monsters and then the well received Godzilla in 2014. Edwards is still attached to direct Godzilla 2 and 3.

The first film in the new Star Wars productions is being directed by J.J. Abrams and recently started production in Abu Dhabi with a projected release date of Dec. 18, 2015.