[2] McDonagh initially pursued a career as a novelist but decided to try screenwriting after his first five books, which he later described as "really bad", were rejected by publishers.

[4] He made his first foray by writing and directing the short film The Second Death (2000), on which his brother served as an executive producer; they have not worked together since.

[11][12] In 2014, McDonagh spoke of plans to end the "trilogy" he started with The Guard and Calvary with a film titled The Lame Shall Enter First.

It will follow a paraplegic ex-policeman in London who has developed a hatred for non-disabled people and gets caught up in a new investigation after one of his friends is murdered.

[13] He has also mentioned numerous other forthcoming projects such as Fear Is the Rider, a thriller starring Abbey Lee and Christopher Abbott;[14] and The Bonnot Gang, a period gangster film about the titular French anarchist gang;[15] McDonagh frequently works with the same actors, including Gleeson, Liam Cunningham, David Wilmot, Marie-Josée Croze, and Caleb Landry Jones.