From the moment Dan Stevens’ flamboyant Trapper rolls into Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire sporting a blindingly bright Hawaiian shirt and singing along to Greenflow’s “I Got’cha,” fans fell in love with his scene-stealing Titan veterinarian. Brought in to treat Kong’s infected tooth, Trapper becomes an essential part of Team Monarch, joining the Hollow Earth expedition to investigate a mysterious signal — and getting all the coolest one-liners along the way.
In hindsight, it’s a surprise that Stevens didn’t join MonstersVerse even soon considering his close creative relationship with Adam Wingard, who directed Stevens in 2014’s The Guest before going on to make Godzilla vs. Kong and Godzilla x Kong. Not that the actor is complaining, mind you. He’d just happy it happened.
“[Wingard is] very on top of his craft in terms of taking the audience for that ride,” Stevens tells Inverse in an interview promoting his upcoming horror film, Cuckoo. “I love being in the hands of solid filmmakers who know how to play with an audience.”
Wingard won’t be directing the next MonsterVerse movie. Instead, I Am Mother director Grant Sputore will helm the Godzilla x Kong sequel. But despite Wingard parting ways with the franchise, Stevens would be happy to don the Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses once again.
“I think Grant is a great choice,” he says. “He's a really lovely filmmaker and I loved playing Trapper.”
Stevens is not up to date on the current status of the upcoming Godzilla x Kong sequel, which will be scripted by Dave Callaham, of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse fame. However, he’s optimistic there’s a place for Trapper.
“I think there's many more adventures that you could get out of him so we're just going to have to see,” Stevens says. “I know that they're currently just ideating the whole next thing, so we'll wait and see if Trapper makes a return or not.”
