Last week came the exciting news that PACIFIC RIM 2 would be hitting theaters in 2017. Fans of the first film were undoubtedly excited to know we would some more kaiju versus jaeger action and much sooner than expected. In fact, Guillermo Del Toro will begin pre-production design work on the film later this year after he finishes work on the FX series THE STRAIN and his upcoming haunted house movie CRIMSON PEAK.
Del Toro spoke with The Wall Street Journal about how he and screenwriters Travis Beacham Zak Penn were finally able to find the right story for the monster movie follow-up.
“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.”
I loved the unabashed popcorn movie feel of PACIFIC RIM but I also realize that it was a lot of mythology to fit into a single film. Del Toro built the sandbox for his supernatural world in last year’s film and now he can just play around for the next one. Much like how HELLBOY II was able to tell a deeper story without having to worry about character origins, PACIFIC RIM 2 should be a vast improvement over the original. Here’s to hoping he brings back Ron Perlman as well.
PACIFIC RIM 2 will hit theaters in 2017.
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