If Guillermo del Toro gets his way, there will be a third Pacific Rim movie.
We already knew that Pacific Rim 2 was on the way, directly preceded by an animated series that will bridge the gap between the two films. Now Collider has managed to squeeze some new details out of the prolific director about his grand plan for the Rimverse, which include intentions for a third movie.
In an interview about the animated film The Book of Life, del Toro told Collider that he wants a Pacific Rim trilogy, and he revealed a little bit about how he plans to get it. He explained that in Pacific Rim 2, viewers may be surprised to find that while some of their favorite characters return, others won't appear until near the end of the movie. This is part of del Toro's plan to "shoot aggressively," intending for those missing characters to join back up just in time for the entire cast to converge in the third film. He didn't elaborate on whether he intends to shoot 2 and 3 back-to-back, but it's not hard to imagine things playing out that way.
He gave an update on the current status of Pacific Rim 2 as well. Del Toro said that the first draft of the screenplay is done, and now they're going to spend some time rewriting and refining it. Pre-production ramps up in August or September of 2015, with production to follow in November or December.
Del Toro also warned fans that the second movie is going to be "a very different experience" than the first one. What this means is unclear, but the director has more than once mentioned that he wants to explore more corners of this universe in depth. He sees things like the "Drift" — the neurological connection between two pilots piloting one of the massive Jaeger robots — as ripe for digging deeper into. Likewise, del Toro's expressed interest in furthering other areas, such as life at the Shatterdome (the massive fortress Jaeger pilots operate out of) and the Precursors (the hostile alien creators of the Kaiju).
Pacific Rim 2 is expected to arrive in theaters on April 7, 2017. Guillermo del Toro's horror flick Crimson Peak is due October 16, 2015.
