Kaylee Hottle, the deaf actor who played Jia in Godzilla v Kong (2021) and its 2024 sequel Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, died on July 21, 2026, at the age of 18. She was killed in a car crash in Frederick, Maryland, on a Tuesday morning, according to WTVG 13abc. The Guardian and TMZ both reported the news on the same date.

Her father, Joshua Hottle, confirmed her death in a Facebook video conducted in American Sign Language, or ASL. The video was titled "I am taking a flight that I never would like to take," as reported by The Guardian. Joshua Hottle also spoke directly to TMZ about his daughter's death. The Hottle family is entirely deaf.

Hottle attended the Texas School for the Deaf, which separately shared news of her death. Her casting as Jia — a deaf orphan who forms a bond with Kong — drew attention because the role was written for a deaf character and played by a deaf actor. Hottle earned a Saturn Award nomination for best performance by a younger actor for the role. (The Saturn Awards honor achievement in science fiction, fantasy, and horror film.) Her co-stars Rebecca Hall and Alexander Skarsgård learned ASL to communicate with her directly on set, The Guardian reported.

Hottle reprised the role of Jia in Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, released in 2024. Across both films, the character served as the emotional anchor of the MonsterVerse franchise's Kong storyline. Hottle's performance was central to how the films handled themes of cross-species communication and belonging. TMZ also published a photo gallery titled "Remembering Kaylee Hottle" on July 21, 2026, alongside its news coverage.

The confirmation of Hottle's death unfolded through several channels at once: her father's ASL video on Facebook, direct communication with TMZ, and an acknowledgment from her former school. A family communicating in ASL, a celebrity-entertainment outlet conducting a direct interview, and a regional news affiliate providing the time-of-day detail — together, these show how news of a public figure's death can travel across very different media ecosystems simultaneously.

The broader context here matters for the deaf community. Deaf actors in mainstream studio franchises remain rare, and Hottle's visibility in two major Warner Bros. releases placed her among the most recognizable deaf performers in contemporary cinema. Her Saturn Award nomination placed her in a category historically dominated by hearing actors. The loss of a performer at 18, before the trajectory of her career could fully develop, removes one of the few deaf actors whose name recognition extended beyond niche audiences.