Pacific Rim 2 will monster stomp its way to theaters in a few years. But if you're drooling for details on where this Kaiju vs. Jaeger battle might lead, you'll be glad to know Guillermo del Toro is dropping hints already.
Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, Pacific Rim's writer/director/producer Guillermo del Toro confessed he and collaborators Travis Beacham and Zak Penn have been brainstorming on where this epic battle could go for a about a year and a half already. He expands:
"I said to Zak, let’s keep kicking ideas till we find one that really, really turns the first movie on its ear, so to speak…It was hard to create a world that did not come from a comic book, that had its own mythology, so we had to sacrifice many aspects to be able to cram everything in the first movie. Namely, for example The Drift, which was an interesting concept. [Then there was] this portal that ripped a hole into the fabric of our universe, what were the tools they were using? And we came up with a really, really interesting idea. I don’t want to spoil it, but I think at the end of the second movie, people will find out that the two movies stand on their own. They’re very different from each other, although hopefully bringing the same joyful giant spectacle. But the tenor of the two movies will be quite different."
The director didn't expand on how the tenor of Pacific Rim 2 might be different; however, he did confess that the sequel will bring in some new characters who will mirror the diversity shown in the first film. He says:
"I’m hoping to bring the same idea I had in the first movie, that was to make it multicultural and humanistic as much as possible, to make characters from many nationalities or gender, to make them equal in the scope of the adventure, in the day-to-day of the adventure. So, we’re bringing a few characters that are new and hopefully doing good work managing those that survived the first movie."
Fans of this growing franchise will be thrilled to learn that Guillermo del Toro will be in full-on Pacific Rim 2 mode in just six weeks. That's when a projected nine-month period of Kaiju and Jaeger designs will begin. By August, del Toro will be reuniting with his production design team to tackle the intimidating task of creating a new slew of robot warriors and massive monsters. But don't expect Cthulhu to make an appearance. The beast is associated with H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness, which Del Toro has long been trying to adapt. But no matter how long that takes, he doesn't intend to throw the iconic creature into Pacific Rim's world, dismissing the idea with a chuckle.
Pacific Rim 2 will open April 7, 2017.
