Guillermo del Toro Reveals PACIFIC RIM 2 Details
Last week Guillermo del Toro announced that Legendary Pictures would be moving forward with Pacific Rim 2 and that he's writing it with Zak Penn. He's been talking about this sequel since the first movie was released and has shared some ideas for it like a Jaeger and Kaiju mashup. In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal the director revealed a few new bits of information on what he's planning, and it's going to be very different film than the first one was. Here's what he had to say:
"We are three years away, so to spoil anything would be fantastically silly of me. What I can tell you: [screenwriter Zak Penn] and I really went in, we started with [screenwriter Travis Beacham] about a year and a half ago, kicking ideas back and forth. And, admittedly, 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” (editor’s note: the neural link between pilots of the giant robots, or jaegers), 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."
All I know is that I loved the hell out of the first movie, and it doesn't bother me that the sequel is going to be "very different." As long as the movie is just as awesome, I'm going to be a happy man. He goes on to talk about the animated series they are developing, saying:
We are talking about all the possibilities in terms of networks. We’re formulating ideas that are, again, interesting and not the usual route, but the series tackles the stories that happened to pilots working in the Shatterdome (editor’s note: a building where jaegers are built and maintained and pilots train), but also cadets learning how to become pilots. All of this happens prior to the first movie, and it gives you a little more depth into the background of certain characters that will appear in the second movie. So it’s really expanding the material. I was incredibly happy with the comic book series that came about from a graphic novel called “Tales From Year Zero,” and we are continuing the tales for the next three years. So by the time the second movie comes out, you will have probably one year of the animation airing, and you will have three years of the comic book series ongoing, so we are trying for all these things to be canon, to be in the same universe, to not wing anything, so that if anyone … a lot of kids, for example, have discovered “Pacific Rim” through the toys. They come in through the toys, and then they watch the movie, and then they learn this, they learn that through the movie or the comic book series, so we’re trying to make it canon so we can expand the universe. And by the time we come into the second movie, you have a good feel for the world, and we can dedicate ourselves to character and ideas and spectacle.
I'm really about all this Pacific Rim awesomeness that is happening. I knew the movie would eventually happen, but the animated series was such a great surprise. Hopefully they bring on a team of talented animators to bring it to life.