If you want a lot more monsters and giant robots duking it out in the future, you may very well get your wish.Pacific Rim Uprisingis set to debut in theaters in March, which serves as a follow-up to Guillermo Del Toro’s first giant robot flick. NowPacifc Rim 2director, Steven S. DeKnight (Daredevil) reveals that, if the sequel does well enough at the box office, we could see aPacific Rim cinematic universetake shape.
During New York Comic Con, the first trailer forPacific Rim: Uprisingdebuted and, for the most part, it looks to be more of the same. How many times can you make giant robots fighting giant aliens exciting? Steven S. DeKnight spoke with Nerdist duringNYCCand, according to him, they’ve already discussed a third movie and potential spin-offs. So, apparently, thePacific Rimuniverse could somehow be rich with stories. Here’s what he had to say about it.
“I’m certainly hoping so. I think you’ll definitely probably get more comics. The plan was always to use this movie as a launching pad. If enough people show up to this, we’ve already talked about the plot of the third movie, and how the end of the third movie would expand the universe to a Star Wars/Star Trek-style [franchise] where you can go in many, many different directions. You can go main canon, you can go spin-offs, you can go one-offs. Yeah, that’s the plan. And I would love to see an animated TV show based on this.”
The idea of doing comic books or even an animated series, which was rumored to be happening at one point, set in thePacific Rimuniverse, makes total sense. That’s something die-hard fans could seek out, without the studio expecting moviegoers to shell out box office dollars for a very expensive, blockbuster movie. However, the idea of expanding this out likeStar WarsorStar Trekand doing a ton ofPacific Rim moviesas part of its own universe? That’s a very big idea, to say the least. And as of right now, there isn’t a lot of evidence that suggests there’s enough of an appetite for such a thing.
The firstPacific Rimdid well at the box office, bringing in $411 million worldwide, but it had an absolutely monstrous production budget, which makes that number much less profitable.Pacific Rim: Uprisingis another very expensive, blockbuster movie that will need to make at least that much to justify a third movie, let alone a cinematic universe. Universal’s Dark Universe may be in trouble withThe Mummybringing in roughly the same amount of money this year. However, the big difference here is that audiences really likedPacific Rim, it just didn’t do as well as the studio had hoped.
Pacific Rim: Uprisingisset for release on July 30, 2025. That puts it in prime position to rake in the money at the box office, assuming the movie is good. If it does, these comments toNerdistfrom Steven S. DeKnight make it seem like the studio may start greenlightingPacific Rimprojects left and right.
