Gundam Swaps Kong: Skull Island Director for Sweet Tooth Showrunner

The long-in-development Gundam movie seemingly lost one director but gained a new one. Created by Yoshiyuki Tomino and beginning in 1979, Gundam has become one of the biggest global franchises. The series focuses on giant robots, better known as mecha, named Gundams. The franchise generates over $600 million in toys and merchandise sales annually. While the franchise has over 30 anime, it has never generated a live-action film, yet that will soon change as Legendary has acquired the showrunner of the critically acclaimed Netflix series Sweet Tooth.

Deadline reports that Jim Mickle has signed on to direct and write Gundam for Legendary Pictures. Mickle was not only the showrunner and director on Sweet Tooth, but also previously helmed the independent crime thriller Cold in July and the horror film We Are What We Are. Mickle replaces Kong: Skull Island director Jordan Vogt-Roberts, who had been attached to the project since 2021 with a planned Netflix release. However, both Vogt-Roberts and Netflix dropped out of the film. Legendary Pictures is aiming for a 2025 production start date.

With Legendary Pictures aiming for a 2025 production date, Gundam is now in a race with Amazon MGM’s Voltron. Both movies are based on anime centered on giant mechs, yet Voltron is further along as Henry Cavill has joined the cast, and Rawson Marshall Thurber is attached to direct. Right now, neither Gundam nor Voltron has a set release date, so the race is on to see which one will arrive in theaters first.

Gundam Could Be the Next Blockbuster Franchise

Gundam has no current release date or studio distributor. In 2022, Legendary Pictures made a deal with Sony Pictures to distribute its films, so that seems like the safest bet. Given Gundam‘s origins in Japan and Sony Pictures being a subsidiary of Sony Entertainment, a Japanese company, it certainly would be a perfect fit as Sony would understand the brand appeal in Japan and the franchise’s global impact. Sony Pictures certainly could use Gundam as a potential live-action film franchise, given its recent struggles to spin off the Spider-Man brand with movies like Morbius and Madame Web.

So far, there’s been only one live-action depiction of Gundam, in 2018’s Ready Player One. Hiring a director like Mickle might initially seem odd, given his experience with smaller character-centric movies, but it suggests that Gundam will have just as much compelling drama as incredible action. With a passionate fanbase that spans decades, Gundam could be the next major global film franchise, one that could capture an entirely new generation of fans as it looks to offer something different from Star Wars, Star Trek, the MCU and DCU, and many other long-running film franchises.