Dan Stevens is to star in the sequel to 'Godzilla vs. Kong'.

The 'Downton Abbey' actor has been tapped to play the lead role in the next installment of Legendary's MonsterVerse film franchise with Adam Wingard returning as director.

Production on the project is slated to begin this summer in Australia.

'Godzilla vs. Kong' was released in 2021 and starred Alexander Skarsgard and Millie Bobby Brown. It was successful at the box office despite being released amid the pandemic and also streaming on HBO Max.

Adam previously revealed that he played out fight scenes in the first film with action figures and loved getting to go back to his childhood.

The 39-year-old director said: "It was definitely the closest thing to playing with toys being an adult.

"There was quite a few times in pre-production where I literally had a Godzilla and Kong toy that were basically the right scale for what I was doing.

"Yeah, I would actually play with the toys and play out a couple of moments with that."

Wingard continued: "There's nothing wrong with playing with toys!

"And I'm not gonna lie, as an adult, over the years I've always walked past toy aisles when I got to Target or Walmart, and I always think, how unfair is this?

"The only thing I wanted as a kid was to be able to walk into these toy aisles and just buy whatever I wanted.

"And now here I am as an adult and I can actually do that, and I don't have any desire for it anymore."