Though it admittedly had several flaws and derivative elements, Guillermo del Toro’s 2013 film Pacific Rim was a fun and energetic blockbuster, and while it told a complete story, the director managed to create a vivid and well-imagined world that left plenty of room for future exploration. Despite its less-than-stellar box office performance (though to be fair, $411 million is nothing to shake a stick, or in this case a cargo ship, at), the possibility of a sequel is still on the table.
Unfortunately, we’ve heard conflicting reports from the studio and from del Toro himself. Before the film came out, the director said he had ideas for a sequel, but when Pacific Rim under-performed, those plans got put on the back burner. A bit later on we heard that del Toro was busy writing the sequel, while Legendary Pictures CEO Thomas Tull expressed his interest in seeing it come to fruition.
We’re now over a year past the first film’s release, and haven’t seen any development on a sequel or prequel to Pacific Rim. In fact, we heard back in May that it currently isn’t even a priority over at Legendary Pictures. Again, it’s understandable that the studio would be hesitant for another one, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating.
Well, fret not, Jaegar fans, because there may still be hope! According to del Toro himself, he and Zak Penn (X-Men: The Last Stand, The Incredible Hulk) have secretly been writing the sequel and are approaching it as if they’ve gotten the greenlight from the studio (which, he re-affirms, hasn’t happened yet). In a recent interview with BuzzFeed, he said:
“I’m working very, very hard with Zak Penn. We’ve been working for a few months now in secret. We found a way to twist it around. Travis Beacham [co-writer of the first film, now working on Fox’s Hieroglyph was involved in the storyline and now I’m writing with Zak because Travis has become a TV mogul. [Laughing] I don’t have the money, but I’m proceeding like it is happening.”
Del Toro hopes to begin production on Pacific Rim 2 after his next feature film. He also confirmed that the follow-up will in fact be a sequel, and not a prequel, as some fans initially speculated. He also says that the first film’s stars Charlie Hunnam and Rinko Kikuchi (who play Jaegar pilots Raleigh Becket and Mako Mori, respectively) will be back.
“Some people were wondering if we were going to do the prequel. I was never interested in doing that first wave of invasion. I’m going for very new, very crazy ideas on the second one, which are vary different from the first one – but you will get really great spectacle.”
The fans are already on board for another giant-robot-vs-giant-monster spectacle, and if anyone can deliver on the follow-up, it’s del Toro. Now, all that remains is for him to persuade Legendary executives to make it happen.
Tell us, would you like to see a Pacific Rim 2? Or do you think the first one should remain as a standalone film? Sound off in the comments below!