Opinions vary around the UPROXX gulag in regards to Pacific Rim. Some folks love it and thought it was the perfect tribute/restart that the giant monster/giant robot genre needed. Other folks were let down and leaned towards Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla as the true return of the genre. I enjoyed so both and I’d gladly take anything over Cloverfield.
The debate is far from settled, but we’re definitely getting a second chance now. April 7th, 2017 to be exact. From Buzzfeed:
In early June, del Toro told BuzzFeed that he was working on a script for the sequel with screenwriter Zak Penn (X-Men: The Last Stand), and in his announcement today, del Toro said original screenwriter Travis Beacham would also be contributing to the expansion of the Pacific Rim franchise.
“The characters I love will return,” del Toro told BuzzFeed in an exclusive new statement. “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.” (The film’s original actors, including Charlie Hunnam, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, and Burn Gorman, are expected to return, but official deals are not yet complete.)
Del Toro certainly has some time to get the new movie to theaters, given that Pacific Rim 2 is slated for release almost four years from the release of the first film. (Lately, studios have been planting flags in major release dates as far out as 2018, and as Captain America: The Winter Soldier proved this year, the first weekend in April is as viable a release date for a major franchise film as anything in the summer.)
Now that’s not all if you watch the clip above. There’s going to be an animated project, more comics sprouting out of the Year Zero series and a slew of other tie in things before we even sniff April 2017.
Now does this mean success or that we’re going to get a quality picture? That’s up in the air. I hardly see how you can do a sequel considering how every giant robot you had was destroyed in the first film. Not only that, but your characters had nothing to do then. What’s their purpose now?
These are things that will certainly be hurdles, but I’m sure they’ll find a way to get robots fighting monsters. It’s a simple concept after all. Boy loves girl, girl is a monster, boy fights girl with giant robot.