The internet is really riled up as of late, especially when it comes to the subject of director’s cuts. Following HBO Max’s announcement that Zack Snyder’s Justice League will become a reality in 2021, any film that has a hint of editing that may have left something out is subjected to a hashtag to release that director’s cut. Pacific Rim Uprising co-writer/director Steven DeKnight is the latest subject of such a push, and he’s flat out admitted to fans that if they’re looking for an alternate “director’s cut,” they’re out of luck.
Interacting with a fan that was trying to get #ReleaseTheDeKnightCut trending, DeKnight himself took to Twitter to state that the cut of Pacific Rim Uprising is definitely the cut that he sides with. That sentiment definitely tracks, as even when promoting the 2018 sequel to Guillermo del Toro’s beloved 2013 original, Steven DeKnight admitted that his initial director’s cut was a bit flabby. Adhering to his believe that the film shouldn’t cross the two-hour mark, DeKnight turned his two hour and 18 minute movie into a leaner, meaner hour and 51 minutes. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t another version of Pacific Rim Uprising that Steven DeKnight has an interest in presenting to the world, as you'll see in the message below:
In that same tweet, he mentioned that he absolutely would love to release the original version of the film’s script into the world, as the initial draft would go through several re-writes to become the finished product we know today. And, of course, any mention of an alternate version of Pacific Rim Uprising wouldn’t be complete without mentioning a scene that DeKnight absolutely wishes he’d included from his first draft, in which Charlie Hunnam’s Raleigh and Rinko Kikuchi’s Mako reunite in an intended “coma-drift sequence.”
This makes for what is probably the second unreleased draft of a Pacific Rim sequel that fans would pay to get their hands on. The other alternate version of Pacific Rim Uprising being, of course, the initial version crafted by Guillermo del Toro and writer Zak Penn, which was junked when the timetable for the second film was accelerated by Legendary’s sale to the Wanda Group. As it’s been two years since the actual continuation of the Pacific Rim series was released into theaters, and there’s been little to no word of whether we’ll get that potentially amazing follow-up promised in the closing moments of Pacific Rim Uprising or not, the release of either of these alternate drafts would be the next best thing.
Pacific Rim’s universe isn’t completely dormant though, as there is the Netflix anime series that’s currently in the works. But even something as simple as a PDF or web comic bringing the originally intended vision for Pacific Rim Uprising to life would be something worth seeing. Though if anyone is seriously thinking about bringing Steven DeKnight’s draft to the masses, it would be a lot cooler to get a comic book and/or script book out of the deal. Consider it a down payment for the future of the Pacific Rim franchise.
