Why it’s a crime Godzilla x Kong director didn’t make a sequel to his best movie

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire hits screens today, and as Adam Wingard’s first sequel to one of his own movies, it’s a reminder that the director still hasn’t made a follow-up to his best film, The Guest.

Adam Wingard was an indie darling who quickly transitioned to blockbuster filmmaking. But along the way, he crafted a masterful movie called The Guest, that pretty much demanded a sequel. But in spite of critical acclaim, growing fandom, and even an “aural sequel,” we’re yet to see The Guest 2. Here’s why that’s a crime.

I first heard of Wingard when low-budget serial killer thriller A Horrible Way to Die was doing the festival circuit, and blowing audiences away with its gritty, grainy, grimy horror.

That marked the first collaboration between Wingard and screenwriter Simon Barrett, which they followed with the hugely entertaining home invasion thriller You’re Next. That film should have launched its own franchise, around Sharni Vinson’s kick-ass heroine Erin.

But though Lionsgate snapped up the rights to You’re Next in 2011, it wasn’t released until 2013, a delay that killed much of the movie’s momentum. Meaning the film was tragically one-and-done, and in 2014, the filmmakers moved on to The Guest.

What is the Guest?

The Guest concerns a family struggling to come to terms with the death of their soldier son during the war in Afghanistan. Then one day, a stranger — named David Collins — arrives at their door, claiming to be their boy’s best friend.

The family takes him in, and David quickly changes their lives, seemingly for the better. But the character clearly has a dark side, and as David’s secrets come to light, this cozy family drama segues into violent action with a sci-fi spin.

Downton Abbey star Dan Stevens plays the stranger in question, and his David is sexy and terrifying in equal measure, so much so that you can’t take your eyes off him. Most notably when he’s just stepped out of the shower, in a scene that launched a thousand thirsty memes.

The Guest ultimately climaxes in open-ended fashion, with the narrative only fully taking flight in the film’s final few reels. There was clearly more story to tell, and a sequel was teased at the time, but the movie grossed around half its budget theatrically, which pretty much ended those talks.

In the intervening years, however, a cult following has built around The Guest, which resulted in Wingard and Barrett bowing to public pressure, and releasing a follow-up… in soundtrack form.

Introducing the aural sequel

In April of 2022, the filmmakers announced an “aural sequel” to The Guest, in conjunction with Steve Moore, who wrote the original movie’s score.

Wingard explained to Collider: “Over the years, I’ve received more requests from fans to make a sequel to The Guest than any other movie in my filmography – I am now proud to say it has finally arrived. The Guest 2 is a first of its kind; an aural sequel to the feature film. Embedded within the song titles, the album artwork, and the music itself are hidden clues that lead the listener down the path a sequel would take. If you take the time to fully absorb this work, one could imagine how the story unfolds.”

While Moore added: “For The Guest Returns I revisited some of the main themes I wrote for the original film. The idea was that this would have been a bigger production, bigger budget, so I’ve tried to expand on these themes in a way that gives them a larger scope. Lots of synths but also a heavy orchestral component, and new motifs that layer over the original themes.”

But while music fans had something to cling to, there was still no movie sequel. Instead, Wingard and Barrett collaborated on the unfairly maligned Blair Witch reboot, and Wingard entered the MonsterVerse by directing Godzilla vs Kong, and this week’s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.

Will The Guest 2 ever happen?

The new MonsterVerse movie sees the director re-team with Dan Stevens, and while they’ve been doing publicity rounds, talk has turned to the lack of a Guest 2.

“We tried to appease the fans by releasing a soundtrack,” Stevens tells The Hollywood Reporter when asked if a sequel will ever happen. “But I don’t know is the real answer. That really is a question that’s much more for Adam and Simon than for myself. I would always leap at the chance to work with either of them. There are so many other projects that we are talking about collaborating on as well, and The Guest 2 might be among them, but I could neither confirm nor deny at this stage.”

Which is extremely vague. Mercifully, Wingard was more forthright in his interview with the same outlet, revealing that yes, a Guest sequel is being discussed.

“I’ve been playing with an idea for some time with Simon Barrett… It’s unfortunate that Lance Reddick died last year. It was very sad, and I loved Lance. So I wish that we could have made [The Guest 2] happen in his lifetime, because we would’ve definitely carried him over into the film.”

That’s about all we’ve got to go on at present, and if you know what happened to Reddick’s character in the first film, this tease poses more questions than it answers. But to paraphrase Dumb & Dumber, while there’s been no movement on the The Guest 2 front for a decade, Adam Wingard is now saying there’s a chance.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is in cinemas now. You can read our review, find out how to get the themed Call of Duty bundle, who the villain is this time around, how to stream Godzilla Minus One, and find out how many Godzilla movies there are. Check out even more movies to stream this month as well.