Guillermo del Torro announces new plans for a Pacific Rim sequel.
With Godzilla eating up the box office, one has to recognize the first assault on the beach head in terms of bring kaijus back into the movoe consciousness: 2013's Pacfic Rim. While not as runaway success, the movie did earn $411 million worldwide, demonstrating that fans would embrace giant monsters wrecking cities. But, would that mean Pacific Rim would somehow benefit from that fact?
Apparently, the answer is Yes. According to the video you're about to see, Director Guillermo del Toro revealed that he is collaborating with Zak Penn on writing deveoping a sequel, and now Universal has confirmed that Pacific Rim 2 will arrive in 3D and IMAX theaters on April 7th, 2017. If you haven't seen the announcement, here it is:
Pacific Rim is a guilty SJF pleasure to be sure, but news of a sequel is intriguing. How can a series which seemed to have a definite ending be expanded to include more (and presumably) larger Kaiju fighting Jaegers on bigger vistas? Hoefully, the other news del Torro revealed will help answer that. He also announced plans to develop an animated series, as well as continuing with Travis Beacham’s Pacific Rim: Tales From Year Zero comic book. That should give the series the needed shot in the arm, a technique that also worked in bringing Guardians of the Galaxy to theaters with such a limited source of issues.
While 2017 is a long time to wait for a follow-up, the news is welcomed. Turning this into a franchise will be a challenge, but it appears Legendary and Universal are up to the challenge. That means we'll have two kaiju films within one year of each other, as Godzilla 2 has already been greenlit.
While there have been hints at what Pacific Rim 2 would address, we do know that Jaeger pilots Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi) and Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam) will definitely return, along with others:
“The characters I love will return. Raleigh, Mako, Newt, Gottlieb and who knows, maybe even Hannibal Chau – but we are taking them into a fresh territory that will display amazing sights and battles. The first film set the stage and now we’re ready to have a blast. We’re all very happy to be bringing you more Kaijus and more Jaegers kicking each other’s butt.”
Pacific Rim 2 is set for release on April 7th, 2017.
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