‘Godzilla 2’ Hires ‘Krampus’ Writers for Merry Monster Mayhem

We don’t know what Gareth Edwards is plotting after Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hits theaters, but we do know that he won’t be returning to helm Godzilla 2. The upcoming sequel to his 2014 monster movie has picked up a pair of interesting writers, however, with Krampus duo Michael Dougherty and Zach Shields on board to pen the screenplay — but don’t expect to see the giant lizard battling it out with a demonic jack-in-the-box (unless…).

According to Variety, Legendary Pictures didn’t have to look very far to find new writers for Godzilla 2 — Dougherty and Shields co-wrote Krampus (which Dougherty directed) for Legendary, and although the Christmas horror film didn’t make huge bank at the box office, it did charm a fair amount of critics (and studio execs, apparently). I personally thought Krampus wasn’t very entertaining (or funny, for that matter), but Dougherty and Shields had some inventive ideas and a few nasty little tricks up their sleeves, so you can easily see what Legendary thinks they could bring to the table in a Godzilla movie.

The biggest complaint about Edwards’ film was the lack of any real character development — or any characters who were actually interesting, as Bryan Cranston’s role was cut a little too short, while more focus was placed on Aaron Taylor-Johnson (the human embodiment of bran flakes) and an underutilized Elizabeth Olsen. Perhaps Dougherty and Shields can give us some characters to really care about in the sequel.

Variety also notes that Legendary might be putting together a writers room for their new monster universe, which includes the upcoming Kong: Skull Island (a recent poster included a Godzilla easter egg) and a Godzilla / Kong crossover.