The Director Of Godzilla Minus One Has Cast His Upcoming Mech Movie

After you make a movie about a giant monster terrorizing human civilization, what do you do? Well, historically, you make a sequel. That’s exactly what Takashi Yamazaki did with Godzilla Minus Zero, the upcoming sequel to his 2023 smash hit Godzilla Minus One. But then what do you do after that?

Earlier this year, we learned Yamazaki’s answer to that next question: Grandgear, his first major studio movie, and one that already has J.J. Abrams attached. Now we know who will star in it, and it’s some of today's most talked-about actors.

According to Deadline, Grandgear will star Nico Parker, Sam Nivola, and Paul Giamatti. All three are hot commodities: Sam Nivola stars in the Hulu thriller series Phony, Nico Parker plays Astrid in the live-action How to Train Your Dragon franchise, and Paul Giamatti recently had an acclaimed performance in The Debut.

We don’t know much about the plot of Grandgear yet, but we do know one key concept it will cover. At Cinemacon, a tease for the movie showed two mechs fighting each other in a sequence The Playlist called “slicker than, say, the Pacific Rim universe.” Sony Pictures will distribute the film, and, perhaps in an act of nominative determinism, J.J. Abrams’ production company Bad Robot is also involved.

A mech movie after a kaiju movie is a logical next step: often, sequels to kaiju movies use the conceit of the creature being replicated as a robot with modern technology. There’s Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla and its follow-ups, and while not a sequel, the entire premise of Pacific Rim focused on kaiju versus mechs. Could we also see a kaiju in Grandgear? Knowing Yamazaki, anything is possible. Whatever tricks it has in store, it’s sure to be just as epic as the movies that preceded it.

Grandgear hits theaters on February 18, 2028.