Del Toro: ‘Pacific Rim 2’ Set To Punch More Monsters In 2017

Director Guillermo del Toro teased the possibility of a Pacific Rim sequel earlier this month when he revealed he was working on a film script with Zak Penn (X-Men: The Last Stand, The Avengers). He made it official Thursday that Legendary Pictures and Universal Studios and he will return to direct for an April 7, 2017 release of Pacific Rim 2.

“The characters I love will return,” del Toro told BuzzFeed. “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 Toro is currently doing post-production work on the Legendary Pictures horror film, Crimson Peak, starring Mia Wasikowska, Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain, and Charlie Hunnam. He’s also working the FX television series The Strain, which is based on a series of vampire horror novels the Oscar-winning director wrote along with Chuck Hogan. The first episode is scheduled to air on July 13, 2014.

For those wondering about what path Pacific Rim 2 might take, Del Toro provided some clues when he first teased that he was working on a script:

“I’m working very, very hard with Zak Penn. We’ve been working for a few months now in secret. We found a way to twist it around.

“Some people were wondering if we were going to do the prequel. I was never interested in doing that first wave of invasion. I’m going for very new, very crazy ideas on the second one, which are very different from the first one — but you will get really great spectacle.”

The original Pacific Rim cost approximately $190 million to make for its July 2013 release but managed to pull in only around $102 million in the United States. It was in the international market where the giant robots battling giant monsters spectacle made its money by pulling in $309.2 million.

Still, there were questions on whether a Pacific Rim sequel would happen because of the relatively low domestic gross. The success of Godzilla in May may have shown that American audiences are warming up to Kaiju (giant monster) battles by ringing up nearly $200 million at the box office domestically and more than $478 million worldwide.

The movie sequel is not the only thing in production for Pacific Rim, however. Del Toro also revealed that an animated series is on the way along with a continuation of the Pacific Rim: Tales from Year Zero graphic novel that serves as a prequel to the original film.

You can see Del Toro’s Pacific Rim announcement below.

[Image via Legendary Pictures]