Just a few days ago, Warner Bros. and Legendary made some changes to its release schedule, pushing Godzilla 2 back nine months from June 8, 2018 to March 22, 2019, while issuing a May 29, 2020 release date for Godzilla Vs Kong, which ties into next year's Kong: Skull Island. Now that that Godzilla 2 has a new release date, the project has suffered a setback, with director Gareth Edwards parting ways with the project. It isn't clear yet if Warner Bros. and Legendary have any candidates in mind to replace the filmmaker, but with nearly three years to go until this hits theaters, there is still plenty of time to find a directorial replacement.

Deadline reports that the split between Gareth Edwards and Warner Bros. was amicable, and that both parties agreed on the filmmaker parting ways before the new release date was announced. This report reveals that the filmmaker had several projects he wanted to pursue that were much smaller in size and scale than Godzilla 2. The director's next film, the highly-anticipated Star Wars spinoff Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, is set to hit theaters on December 16.

Gareth Edwards made his directorial debut with the indie film Monsters, which hit theaters in 2010. He made the huge leap from the low-budget world to massive summer tentpoles with 2014's Godzilla, which was a hit with fans and critics alike. The movie earned just over $200 million domestically and $529 million worldwide from a $160 million budget. Legendary made the not-so-surprising announcement that Godzilla 2 was moving forward at the end of their Comic Con panel in 2014, confirming that Gareth Edwards would be back to direct, and that the sequel will feature iconic monsters such as Rodan, Mothra and King Ghidorah.

Godzilla writer Max Borenstein wrote the script for Godzilla 2, with the writer teasing last year that the sequel will be bigger and better than the original. No story details have surfaced quite yet, and it isn't clear if any stars from the original Godzilla will be back to reprise their roles. The American Godzilla reboot cast included Bryan Cranston, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins, Juliette Binoche, David Strathairn and Richard T. Jones.

This report doesn't mention any of the specific projects Gareth Edwards is pursuing, or if they are original projects that he wrote himself. As of now, Godzilla 2's only direct competition on March 22, 2019 is Paramount's Amusement Park, but it will also hit theaters just two weeks before Warner Bros.' DCEU superhero adventure Shazam!, which arrives on April 5, 2019. Be sure to stay tuned for more updates on Godzilla 2 as soon as more information comes in.