Guillermo del Toro talks international cast, Jaegers and Kaiju battling it out in a neon lit Hong Kong in Pacific Rim

Last Updated on July 23, 2021

The team behind PACIFIC RIM might have gone into radio silence following their recent Comic-Con showing, but that doesn’t stop director Guillermo del Toro from talking about the flick and making it sound more and more awesome with each interview. The latest one comes from Collider and del Toro gave us a bit more insight into the characters, robots and monsters that we’ll see on the big screen next year. Here’s what he said when asked about…

…the international cast of the film:

“The main drive behind that was that I didn’t want it to be a single country saving the Earth. I wanted everybody saving the Earth. I wanted to have people from every race, color, creed possible coming together to work as a unit. I felt that it was very important to have the charismatic leader be played by Idris Elba, rather than the usual WASP-y forty-ish sergeant type. I wanted somebody that had humanity and vulnerability. What is great about Idris is that he is a larger than life human, he is powerful, he is magnificent, but he is also incredibly vulnerable, he feels burdened, he feels like a human in need of help, with the weight of the world on his shoulders. And Rinko… It’s exactly like her in real life, somebody that is able to put up with a lot in a quiet and dignified way.” 

…the different Jaegers and Kaiju that’ll appear in the movie:

“We designed a little over half a dozen Jaegers and they’re in the film in one way or another, but the main four that have real set pieces and are there for the body of the movie are Russian, Chinese, American and Australian. Then we have others – the Japanese robot, the first US robot that was built, a German robot… And the Kaiju – we designed about ten, but not all of them appear in main set pieces. The main Kaiju… There are about seven or eight, there’s one I keep forgetting but he’s gonna be a big surprise.”

…whether the Chinese elements were added to appeal to that particular audience:

“No, I felt that one of the things I wanted was a battle in a city that was lit by neon, by colored neon, in the rain. When you see the Hong Kong skyline, it’s absolutely beautiful and surreal and almost magical. I wanted a harbor that would never be surrendered. The last stand. This is not a movie about the middle of the war or the resistance, this is the end of the war and we’re losing. There’s only one outpost left and I wanted this outpost to be Hong Kong.”

Considering del Toro’s knack for astonishing visuals, I can’t wait to see what his imagination yielded this time. Learning that there will be a battle in a neon lit BLADE RUNNER-esque cityscape just makes the wait a bit more unbearable. 2013 can’t come soon enough.

When legions of monstrous creatures, known as Kaiju, started rising from the sea, a war began that would take millions of lives and consume humanity’s resources for years on end. To combat the giant Kaiju, a special type of weapon was devised: massive robots, called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. But even the Jaegers are proving nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless Kaiju. On the verge of defeat, the forces defending mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes—a washed up former pilot (Charlie Hunnam) and an untested trainee (Rinko Kikuchi)—who are teamed to drive a legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger from the past. Together, they stand as mankind’s last hope against the mounting apocalypse.

PACIFIC RIM hits theaters on July 12, 2013, starring Idris Elba, Charlie Day, Rinko Kikuchi (below), Charlie Hunnam, Ron Perlman, Clifton Collins and Rob Kazinsky.