It wasn’t the most encouraging start.

Just as Legendary’s Godzilla vs. Kong was beginning postproduction in 2019, the company’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters opened — and underperformed. The movie, which cost $170 million to make, grossed only $386 million and earned middling reviews (42 percent on Rotten Tomatoes).

Given King of the Monsters’ less-than-stellar results, Legendary insiders had viewed Godzilla vs. Kong as perhaps the end of the current version of the franchise, even as executives believed they had saved the best for last. But then Godzilla vs. Kong opened.

The movie, which bowed stateside March 31 to $31.6 million, has crossed $400 million globally. It is the top-grossing Hollywood-produced movie released since the pandemic upended the movie business. And it has yet to open in multiple larger markets, among them the U.K., Brazil and Japan. It also marks the second-best performance in the four-movie MonsterVerse franchise, trailing only Kong: Skull Island’s 2017 tally of $566 million.

Now, instead of winding down the franchise, Godzilla vs. Kong may ramp it up. The Hollywood Reporter has learned that Legendary is quietly taking steps to stretch the series into one or more installments, entering early talks with Godzilla vs. Kong director Adam Wingard to return for another round of monster-on-monster mayhem. If a deal closes, Wingard would be the first helmer to return to the monster fold since Godzilla kicked off the Legendary partnership with Japan’s Toho in 2014 with $524 million in global receipts.

As of now, there’s no timetable for the project as Wingard has become popular among studios. Warner Bros., for example, chased and landed the director for a live-action feature based on the Saturday morning cartoon Thundercats. And a Face/Off sequel at Paramount also beckons. And there is no known writer attached to the new MonsterVerse installment, either.

However, Wingard (CAA, Grandview, Morris Yorn) is said to have been very involved in creating Godzilla vs. Kong set-pieces as well as the world-building for the movie’s Hollow Earth plotline, and he and Legendary have been cooking up plenty of ideas already. In fact, one possible title being floated internally? Son of Kong.

EXCLUSIVE: Marking the first major role to be cast in the upcoming sequel, Dan Stevens is set to lead the next installment of Legendary’s Monsterverse film franchise, a follow-up to last year’s Godzilla vs. Kong. Adam Wingard, who helmed the first film, is returning to direct, with production is slated to begin this summer in Australia.

Per usual, plot details are being kept under wraps, other than following the film’s larger-than-life monsters and then preparing for their next battle against each other. Godzilla vs. Kong helped get audiences back in theaters as it became the second film of the Covid era to cross the $100 million mark at the domestic box office en route to $468 million globally. The number is impressive as it also bowed day-and-date on HBO Max.

As for Stevens, while 2017’s live-action Beauty and the Beast was his first major tentpole lead, the veteran actor has been particular in the film roles he has taken, not jumping into major sequels in the past, but the opportunity to reteam with Wingard was too hard to pass up. The two worked together on the action horror thriller The Guest, the Sundance pic that surprised audiences as it gave them a badass performance from Stevens that viewers weren’t used to and critics and fans went crazy for. The film earned both Stevens and Wingard some of the best reviews of their careers, while also having major studios taking notice of the potential of both Stevens and Wingard in their future film slates.