Jurassic Park legend Sam Neill joins Godzilla x Kong sequel

Sam Neill has signed on to the ‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’ sequel.

The ‘Jurassic Park’ icon, 77, will be joining Kaitlyn Dever, Jack O’Connell, Matthew Modine, Delroy Lindo and Alycia Debnam-Carey in the next entry in Legendary’s Monsterverse.

The ‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’ follow-up will also see Dan Stevens reprise his role as Trapper Beasley.

While Neill’s casting in ‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’ has been confirmed, no details about his role have been revealed yet.

‘I Am Mother’ director Grant Sputore is to helm the movie, which has been penned by ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ writer David Callaham.

Although specific plot details for the ‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’ sequel have not been revealed, Deadline reports the film will introduce several new human characters who will join the titular Titans as they face off against a new world-ending threat.

Starring Rebecca Hall, Dan Stevens and Brian Tyree Henry ’Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’ followed the legendary Titans, Godzilla and Kong, as they joined forces to face a powerful new threat rising from within Hollow Earth - one that poses a danger to both their kind and the future of humanity.

Last May, it was announced that ’Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’ director Adam Wingard would not be helming the next movie due to scheduling conflicts.

The Hollywood Reporter said at the time that the filmmaker’s departure was amicable, and the door had not been closed on Wingard returning to direct another film in the Monsterverse in the future.

Despite his exit, Wingard previously teased he had “more story to tell” in the Monsterverse.

He told Discussing Film ahead of ’Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’s cineatic debut in March 2024: “The whole idea that if you've done two movies, like, maybe you should just go ahead and do a third because, as you said, there's a trilogy in there.

“It just depends on how [‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’] does and how things kind of shape out.

“I do have more story to tell with these monsters, and I know where I'd go with it. I would be very excited to be able to come back on for another one if things worked out!”

Wingard added he deliberately opted for a smaller human cast in order to focus the film on Godzilla and King Kong.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, the ‘Blair Witch’ filmmaker said: “In the development phase, my motto was, ‘Simplicity is key.’ And so I knew that if we created a smaller cast, we could create a more intimate story.

“We can still spend time with [the human characters], and at the same time, we can spend more time with the monsters and not shortchange one or the other.”

Legendary’s Monsterverse launched in 2014 with ‘Godzilla’, followed by the introduction of King Kong in 2017’s ‘Kong: Skull Island’.

The franchise continued with ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’ in 2019, leading to the epic showdown between the two Titans in 2021’s ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’.

The Monsterverse has since expanded to television, with the animated spin-off series ‘Skull Island’ on Netflix and the Apple TV+ series ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’.