The very bright trailer for Pacific Rim: Uprising brings back the Jaegers from the Guillermo Del Toro monster fest for another attempt to cancel the apocalypse. It seems that it didn’t stick the first time around, so now John Boyega and a few others will jump back into their slick, updated mechs to slice alien monsters and other mechs into tiny pieces to save the planet.
It seems like the sequel will try to outdo its predecessor with bigger battles and more wild robot designs, but the film is also trying to carry a lot of plans on it shoulders according to director Steven S. DeKnight. In an interview with Collider’s Steven Weintraub at New York Comic-Con, DeKnight pointed out that there was still a penciled in plan to bring together Pacific Rim, Godzilla, and Kong under one roof for a film, using their shared space under the Legendary film banner:
“I won’t say there’s an Easter Egg but there’s been a lot of discussion about that possibility [of crossing over]. Look I think it would be fantastic to have the Pacific Rim universe join Legendary’s Monster Universe, it seems like a natural step. And part of the big overall plan after the third movie we’ve talked about is that could happen, it’s always a possibility. It’s by far not a certainty; it’s merely theoretical at this point, but as a fan myself I would love to see that happen.”
This could be a bit confusing since Legendary is now owned by Universal and has the reins on Pacific Rim, all because Kong and Godzilla are still housed over at Legendary’s previous home with Warner Bros. thanks to the pre-existing deal. That’s going to possibly throw a wrench in any sort of shared film experience across studios, but it also doesn’t mean it’s the end of the road. Spider-Man is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe now, all while still being nestled firmly in the control of Sony Pictures.
It would be pure fan service, but why not smash all the monsters together in one film to battle a bunch of Jaegers for the fate of the planet? If anything, it’s the type of thing that will definitely become a comic book at some point. Getting a film sequel to Pacific Rim produced seems to have been a herculean task on its own, so it might be better to just keep hopes conservative at this point.