Pacific Rim was absolutely superb and one of the best blockbusters of last year, but its slightly disappointing domestic haul cast doubt on a sequel – until last week, when it was announced that Legendary Pictures would be partnering with Universal to give helmer Guillermo del Toro a chance to continue his story of giant robots combatting massive kaiju in a war for the future of humanity in Pacific Rim 2.
Recently, while speaking with The Wall Street Journal about his upcoming FX series The Strain, del Toro shed some more light on where Pacific Rim 2 will take the story, stating:
Screenwriter Zak Penn and I really went in, we started with screenwriter Travis Beacham about a year and a half ago, kicking ideas back and forth. And, admittedly, I said to Zak, let’s keep kicking ideas till we find one that really, really turns the first movie on its ear, so to speak. (…) It was hard to create a world that did not come from a comic book, that had its own mythology, so we had to sacrifice many aspects to be able to cram everything in the first movie. Namely, for example “the Drift”, which was an interesting concept. [Then there was] this portal that ripped a hole into the fabric of our universe, what were the tools they were using? And we came up with a really, really interesting idea. I don’t want to spoil it, but I think at the end of the second movie, people will find out that the two movies stand on their own. They’re very different from each other, although hopefully bringing the same joyful giant spectacle. But the tenor of the two movies will be quite different.
That’s pretty exciting stuff for fans of the first film – the kaiju were not fleshed out as much as they could have been, so a sequel that delves into the Drift and the tools used by the alternate dimension baddies to open it should be very interesting indeed. Del Toro’s comments also hint at the possibility that Pacific Rim could be a trilogy, if the end of the second film will hold a big surprise.
The director also revealed that he’ll be jumping into design work on the sequel in just six weeks, and the film will feature “some new jaegers and a lot of new kaiju.” We already knew that many of the survivors from the first film – including Raleigh (Charlie Hunnam), Mako (Rinko Kikuchi), Newt (Charlie Day), Gottlieb (Burn Gorman) and possibly Hannibal Chau (Ron Perlman) – would be returning, but del Toro also wants to introduce new characters to make Pacific Rim 2 “multicultural and humanistic as much as possible, to make characters from many nationalities or gender, to make them equal in the scope of the adventure, in the day-to-day of the adventure.”
On the matter of the announced Pacific Rim animated series, del Toro noted that he’s talking with multiple networks and that the goal is to have a year of animation out before the sequel arrives in 2017. It will be set before Pacific Rim and will focus on the pilots working in the Shatterdrome along with cadet recruits who dream of one day being pilots. Does this mean that Idris Elba’s Stacker Pentecost could return? I sure hope so.
Also during the interview, del Toro said that there’s a “strong possibility” that At the Mountains of Madness, which has long been one of the director’s dream projects, could finally come together now that Legendary and Universal are collaborating. However, nothing official has yet been announced. Of course, we’re already getting a sequel to Pacific Rim, so even if At the Mountains of Madness doesn’t come together, del Toro’s probably feeling plenty content at the moment.
Pacific Rim 2 will open on April 7th, 2017.