In this modern-day update of the genre those monsters launched, del Toro and writer Travis Beacham trade in nuclear anxiety for more top-of-mind worries about climate change. Japanese movie monsters, on the other, were little more than atomic-age fears of mass destruction made flesh - made rubber suits, anyway. It was probably only a matter of time before del Toro tackled this genre his career, on the one hand, has been largely devoted to monsters of one kind or another, and their place as stand-ins for the things that scare us in the real world. And with Pacific Rim, he cracks the code.
Big-budget Hollywood attempts to replicate the experience tend to not just be failures, but disastrous, highly polished failures on an epic scale: Roland Emmerich's 1998 take on Godzilla, for instance, or Michael Bay's Transformers series.īut director Guillermo del Toro knows that the charm in the clash of scale- or armor-plated titans isn't necessarily tied to the low budgets and laughable production design of those guilty-pleasure TV shows. It just might take some time before something new comes of it.The simple pleasures of watching Godzilla or Ultraman doing battle on Saturday afternoon television have proved difficult to re-create since their heyday in the '70s and '80s. Del Toro might not be planning for Pacific Rim 3right now, but in the entertainment industry, anything could happen. Or, in an even more intriguing scenario, maybe Legendary will opt to bring Pacific Rim into their MonsterVerse, which is growing to new heights this year with Godzilla vs.
Perhaps if that series gets a great deal of attention, there could be further animated spin-offs. Sometime this year, Netflix will release Pacific Rim: The Black, an original anime expanding upon the two movies.
Of course, Pacific Rim isn't entirely finished just yet, though it will continue on in a different medium. In that sense, it's especially disappointing that a world with so much potential has to be cut short because of money. It seems more likely that the lack of a Pacific Rim 3 isn't due to story problems, but because of behind the scenes matters like box office returns. The ending of Pacific Rim: Uprising left some threads dangling, and DeKnight also hinted fan favorite character Mako Mori's (Kikuchi) storyline is incomplete. This will surely come as a disappointment for Pacific Rim fans, particularly since it looked like there was a lot more story to tell within this world. In fact, he has no plans at the moment to revisit Pacific Rim, writing, " Talking only as a fan BTW - NO plans to return." After sharing his interest in seeing a Pacific Rim and MonsterVerse (which houses Legendary's Godzilla and Kong movies) crossover on social media, del Toro clarified that this is not an idea for a third movie. Now del Toro has commented on the matter, and his words leave little in question. Related: Pacific Rim 3 Updates: Will A Kaiju Sequel Happen? DeKnight (who took over from del Toro) hinted at story ideas for a third Pacific Rim, saying it would be about " g etting the band back together." Even then, though, he admitted he didn't know what would happen with Pacific Rim 3.
In the months following Pacific Rim: Uprising's release, director Steven S. As a result, it soon became unclear if the Pacific Rim franchise would earn a third installment. Pacific Rim: Uprising garnered a more mixed response from critics and audiences, and it struggled to match its predecessor in terms of box office returns. A sequel, Pacific Rim: Uprising, was released five years later and starred John Boyega. Though not an overwhelming box office success, Pacific Rim performed reasonably well and earned positive reviews from audiences. It starred Charlie Hunnam, Rinko Kikuchi, and Idris Elba. Acclaimed director del Toro broke into the monster blockbuster realm in 2013 with Pacific Rim, an original sci-fi tale that introduced the concept of Jaegers, giant robots controlled by two human pilots fighting a war against the Kaiju. Three years after the second installment, Guillermo del Toro insists he has no plans for a Pacific Rim 3.