Why Godzilla vs Kong's Adam Wingard Is Perfect For ThunderCats
Godzilla vs. Kong director Adam Wingard is slated to direct the upcoming ThunderCats adaptation, and there couldn't be a better choice. Wingard is a lifelong ThunderCats fan, and his passion makes him perfect for the project.
Wingard has rapidly ascended the Hollywood rankings, culminating in his latest contribution to the MonsterVerse franchise. He began his career working on mumblecore films with genre pioneer Joe Swanberg. Horror has long been Wingard's bread and butter, however, with films like The Guest, You're Next, and Blair Witch standing out as early highlights in his career. Now, he gets to direct an adaptation of ThunderCats, the franchise that first jumpstarted his desire to go into film.
Wingard told Deadline that he spent his high school years absolutely obsessed with ThunderCats. He even wrote a feature-length ThunderCats screenplay. The 38-year-old has dreamt of helming a ThunderCats adaptation ever since he was a teenager, and it is that passion for the property that will almost certainly translate into success for Wingard and Warner Bros.
With more and more adaptations and spin-offs proliferating across Hollywood, passion like Wingard's is crucial, particularly when it comes to a property like ThunderCats. Ryan Reynolds previously demonstrated how instrumental passion for a project can be with the Deadpool franchise. Like ThunderCats, Deadpool was long considered a difficult, if not impossible, property to adapt to the big screen. The prospect of an R-rated superhero seemed far-fetched, but Reynolds' lifelong love for the character eventually manifested itself as one of the most highly regarded superhero films of the last decade, and may soon usher Deadpool into the MCU as well. Blockbusters continue to take over the contemporary cinematic landscape. As such, more and more big-budget films get churned out according to a simple formula. Studios' primary aim is not even to make a high-quality film, but simply to tap into fans' own nostalgia for a given property. ThunderCats presents one such opportunity to take audiences on a feature-length nostalgia trip, but Wingard's passion and talent suggest greater promise for the upcoming film.
Wingard's recent work on Godzilla vs. Kong also suggests he is the perfect choice for ThunderCats. His latest film is the rare contemporary kaiju film to recognize the genre as a piece of visual and not narrative art. Wingard creates several striking compositions of the two titular monsters, and places less emphasis on the film's human characters relative to other entries in the MonsterVerse. Godzilla vs. Kong was another film to garner intense skepticism prior to its release, but its largely positive reception further cements Wingard as a premier talent in Hollywood, and someone whose passion for and understanding of ThunderCats will result in a worthwhile addition to today's blockbuster-heavy landscape.