Pacific Rim 2 has a new spot on the calendar. It’s a little further down the line from previous projections, but considering the precarious terrain it had to navigate to exist, fans are likely willing to be patient.
Now scheduled for a February 23, 2018 release, Pacific Rim 2 will be without Guillermo del Toro in the director’s chair this time around. Steven S. DeKnight (best known for his work on Daredevil, Smallville and Spartacus: War of the Damned) is making the leap from TV to cinema for the film, which serves as DeKnight’s big screen directorial debut. Earlier this month, it was revealed that John Boyega would be joining the project and that sounds like a lovely thing.
HitFix rightfully notes that the existence of Pacific Rim 2 probably wouldn’t be possible without China. The 2013 original did okayish-to-underwhelming box office in North America, but business was brisk in international markets. Nearly 3o percent of Pacific Rim’s $411 million box office rack-in came from Chinese filmgoers.
One curiosity in this recent bit of schedule shuffling is how Pacific Rim 2 will do sandwiched between Black Panther (February 16) and an untitled Fox/Marvel (March 2) in that early portion of 2018. Originally, the film was earmarked for an April 7, 2017 release and would be bumped down to an August 4, 2017 spot. Will the February 2018 date hold? We’ll have to wait and see.
(via Deadline)
