The Last Of Us Star Lands Major Role In Godzilla Minus Zero Director's Next Movie

Published Oct 26, 2026, 6:46 PM EDT

Matthew Rudoy is one of ScreenRant's Movie & TV News Editors. He covers the latest in movie & TV news, with a focus on major franchises like Star Wars, The Boys, and Game of Thrones, and also writes some features and reviews. He wrote lists for ScreenRant from 2017-2022, became a news writer in 2023, a senior staff writer in 2024, and an editor in 2025. 

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Godzilla Minus Zero director Takashi Yamazaki has found the lead stars for his new movie Grandgear.

Yamazaki directed and wrote the critically acclaimed Godzilla Minus One, which has a near-perfect 99% critics' score and 98% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, along with grossing $113 million worldwide against a reported budget of $15 million. For this film, he also won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, becoming the first director since Stanley Kubrick to get this honor. Yamazaki returned to direct and write the sequel, Godzilla Minus Zero, which received stellar first reactions and debuted to a 96% critics' score ahead of coming to North American theaters on November 6 and to Japan on November 3.

According to Deadline, Nico Parker (The Last of Us, How to Train Your Dragon) and Sam Nivola (The White Lotus) have been cast in the lead roles for Yamazaki's Grandgear, his first studio movie that is coming out in the aftermath of Godzilla Minus Zero. Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers, The Debut) is also in negotiations to join the film. All plot details are under wraps and the movie is expected to begin filming in 2027.

While Giamatti was reportedly one of the top picks for his role, the lead characters were cast after an extensive search, ultimately leading to a chemistry test for Parker and Nivola. Yamazaki is directing and he wrote the screenplay. The project is being produced by Bad Robot's J.J. Abrams and Glen Zipper.

Parker plays Sarah Miller, the daughter of Pedro Pascal's Joel Miller in HBO Max's hit series The Last of Us. While she is not in most of the series, Sarah is a major focus of the first episode, continues to have a major influence on Joel throughout the rest of the show, and the role led to a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Beyond The Last of Us, Parker plays Astrid in the live-action How to Train Your Dragon movie and its upcoming sequel, Milly Farrier in Disney's 2019 live-action remake of Dumbo, and she won the Sundance Film Festival's Breakthrough Performance award for her portrayal of Doris in 2024's Suncoast starring Woody Harrelson and Laura Linney.

As for Nivola, he plays Lochlan Ratliff in HBO Max's The White Lotus season 3, for which he and the cast received an Actor Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Miniseries. Other prominent roles include Will Winbury in Netflix's mystery drama miniseries The Perfect Couple, Alexander Bernstein in Bradley Cooper's Academy-Award nominated movie Maestro, and he plays Sonny in Hulu's new Connie Britton-led series Phony.

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Giamatti previously received Academy Award nominations for The Holdovers and Cinderella Man. His new movie The Debut, which releases in theaters on December 11, has gained considerable awards buzz, both for his performance and that of his co-star Julianne Moore.

With the producers and cast involved, Grandgear is poised to bring Yamazaki into the realm of studio blockbusters, building on the success of Godzilla Minus One and the overwhelmingly positive early reception to Godzilla Minus Zero.