Legendary’s follow-up to Pacific Rim may have spent a little longer in the oven than first anticipated – production woes looked to have doomed the sequel early on in development, when it was delayed indefinitely – but with the cameras now rolling Down Under, fans can rest assured that the Jaeger Program will be prepped and ready to storm theatres in early 2018.
And when it does, it’ll come bearing a new title – Pacific Rim: Uprising is now the official moniker of Steven S. DeKnight’s creature feature, according to a press release from Legendary. Previously titled Maelstrom, DeKnight’s monstrous blockbuster isn’t the only marquee tentpole to receive a name change, as Godzilla 2 will henceforth be known as Godzilla: King of Monsters. An apt title for Gojira’s second coming – at least, Legendary’s version of the apex predator – we know that Krampus scribes Michael Dougherty and Zach Shields were brought on board to flesh out a script, and there are even murmurings that Legendary will pitch a writers room to fully realize its shared Godzilla-Kong universe, a la Paramount’s approach with Transformers. Still no word on a director for that particular sequel, though.
Rounding out the studio’s info dump, the Rob Letterman-directed Detective Pikachu movie will now release as Pokemon’s Detective Pikachu. It’s simmering in the very early stages of development, but after the barnstorming success of Pokemon Go earlier in the year, slapping the franchise’s brand name on the movie adaptation is really a no-brainer.
Circling back to Pacific Rim: Uprising, Star Wars alum John Boyega is set take point as the son of Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba), leading a cast comprised of Lana Candor, Scott Eastwood, Jing Tian, Cailee Spaeny, Ivanna Sakhno and Adria Arjona. It’ll debut on February 23, 2018. Expect Godzilla: King of Monsters to stomp into theaters on March 22, 2019.