Fan favourite filmmaker Guillermo del Toro has some appropriately huge plans for the Pacific Rim franchise. Whilst doing the rounds to promote his latest film, The Book of Life, the renown Mexican screenwriter-cum-director shared his thoughts on the gargantuan sci-fi flick, stating that Pacific Rim 2 will begin filming in November or December of 2015.
Speaking to Collider, here’s what Del Toro had to say:
“We got the first draft of the movie now, and we are going to spend another 4-5 months on the screenplay before we start pre-production. We start pre-production next year in August-September and start shooting November-December next year.”
Not only that, it’s understood that Legendary Pictures has sanctioned an animated series based on the Kaiju-versus-robots property, which will reportedly bridge the gap between the first film and its upcoming sequel. That’s not all that Del Toro has planned for Pacific Rim, though, with the director looking to the long-term in the hopes that a Pacific Rim 3 will hopefully see the light of day.
“Some of your favorite characters come back, some others don’t because we have decided that we’re going to shoot ambitiously and say ‘Let’s hope we have three movies,’ so some characters come in at the end of the second, hoping that it will ramp up on the third one.”
On the face of it, it’s easy to dismiss del Toro’s grand plan as wishful thinking — after all, Pacific Rim failed to make a lasting impression at the domestic box office. But the film’s performance in international markets such as China helped secure the status of a sequel, though it remains to be seen whether Kaiju-powered lighting will strike twice for del Toro and Co.
Pacific Rim 2 is scheduled to release on April 7th, 2017.