New Info on PACIFIC RIM Animated Series
Last month Guillermo del Toro not only announced a sequel to Pacific Rim, but an animated series as well. In a recent interview with Collider, the filmmaker talks about the series and what it will entail. The series is still very early in development, but he offered up some details on the premise and the timeline saying:
"It’s a great set-up and a link between the first movie and the second movie. It really enhances the mythology of the characters; we have cameos of characters from the first movie, but mostly it’s a new set of characters. New jaegers, except for one or two, [and] new kaijus. It’s really fun."
He goes on to reveal that the show will be one long story, and not just a series of self contained episodes, which I love! I wish more American animated series would be like that. That's why I watch anime.
"We’re going for a long arc, so the idea is to show a group of characters—we have pilots, functional jaegers, but we have all these younger characters. I really want to explore things that are complimentary to the things that I want to explore in the second movie: drift, what drifting does to you, what is needed to drift, a lot of stuff that I think is important, but also the jaeger technology, the kaijus being evolved, ideas about the precursors—the guys that control the kaijus. We have a lot of leeway in 13 episodes and I wanna make it sort of in the same spirit of Pacific Rim, which is the ideal audience for Pacific Rim was young—very young, 11-year-olds and so forth—but with really beautiful design and stories that make these characters interesting in a way that I found them interesting in, for example, Year Zero, the graphic novel that we did. And I think that’s the basic thrust of the thing."
As for where we might see the show air he says:
"Legendary is talking to a few outlets so I’d rather not disclose myself. The way we set up The Strain was to talk to everyone, literally, on the map, and then find who’s response we sort of jibe with the most. I think in this series, it would be great to find a place that can give it a proper presentation and can advertise the creation of the series. So we’re open to being pleasantly surprised everywhere."
It sounds like Del Toro is leading this project on the right track. I just hope he brings on a talented animation team to bring this series to life. This has the potential to be really badass show.