‘Pacific Rim 2’: Release Date Confirmed, Director Guillermo del Toro Who’s Writing the Script Says Action Will Take Place Not Just in the Pacific
Universal Pictures' Pacific Rim 2 is set for release on April 7, 2017. Showrunner and director Guillermo del Toro in a talk with Buzzfeed said: "The characters I love will return. Raleigh, Mako, Newt, Gottlieb and who knows, maybe even Hannibal Chau - but we are taking them into a fresh territory that will display amazing sights and battles. The first film set the stage and now we're ready to have a blast." Del Torro is also co-writing the script with Zak Penn and Travis Beacham. Legendary Pictures' Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni will once again produce, alongside del Toro, Mary Parent and Callum Greene. Jillian Share will be executive producer. Universal Pictures will be releasing the Pacific Rim sequel movie worldwide in 3D and IMAX 3D.
Filming is expected to begin by November 2015. Also, since the Pacific Rim 2 script is still being written up at this stage, there's no plot summary for the upcoming sequel film just yet. In the hit Pacific Rim 2013 movie, Charlie Hunnam was cast as Raleigh, Rinko Kikuchi as Mako, Charlie Day as Newt, Burn Gorman as Gottlieb and Ron Perlman as Hannibal Chau so they will likely return to reprise their Pacific Rim role in the planned sequel. However, unlike the original, the setting for Pacific Rim 2 will no longer be just in the Pacific. According to Slash Film, Del Toro revealed: "No, it's all over the world this time. I want it to be different enough to the first one that you don't feel you're seeing the same movie. I'm doing a little more location-oriented stuff, there are night battles, but there are also daylight battles. The things we do in the action scenes is very different from the first one. We are expanding the mythology of the Anteverse. We are taking the characters into a completely different journey this time because Raleigh for me solved his problem the minute he was able to go full circle and save Mako by sacrificing himself, which is what he couldn't do with his brother. He's not on that journey anymore, he's on a new journey."
During a recent promotion of the Youtube Space House of Horrors, del Toro gave an update on his work on Pacific Rim 2. According to Collider, he reportedly said: "I'm working with Zak Penn on the screenplays and with Travis Beacham and we're slowly going bit by bit. I don't think we'll have a working screenplay until March or April and then by May or June we start pre-production to shoot at the end of the year."