2013’s ‘Pacific Rim’ earned a cult following despite not being a huge box office hit in the U.S. Thanks to foreign ticket sales and a strong home video performance, Universal Pictures has approved of a sequel, ‘Pacific Rim Uprising’ which will arrive in March 2018.
Just like the first film, ‘Uprising‘ pits humans inside giant mechas, known as Jaegers, against huge rampaging monsters. The first ‘Pacific Rim’ featured clear nods to the classic giant creature films like ‘Godzilla’. But could an upcoming film feature, not-so-much a nod, but an outright confrontation between the Jaegers and the most famous giant monsters in film history?
Both ‘Pacific Rim’ flicks were produced by Legendary Pictures, who are also currently at work building a shared universe which kicked off with 2014’s ‘Godzilla’, followed by this summer’s ‘Kong: Skull Island’ with 2019’s ‘Godzilla: King of Monsters’ carrying on the story, leading into 2020’s ‘Godzilla Vs. Kong’. Both franchises feature giant monsters. Could they converge?
‘Pacific Rim Uprising’ director Steven S. DeKnight indicates that not only is a third ‘Pacific Rim’ a possibility, it could feature a crossover between the two film series.
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“I won’t say there’s an Easter Egg but there’s been a lot of discussion about that possibility [of crossing over]. Look I think it would be fantastic to have the Pacific Rim universe join Legendary’s Monster Universe, it seems like a natural step. And part of the big overall plan after the third movie we’ve talked about is that could happen, it’s always a possibility. It’s by far not a certainty; it’s merely theoretical at this point, but as a fan myself I would love to see that happen.
“Oh we definitely leave it open to another installment. The tricky thing with something like this is you want to not end on a cliffhanger. You don’t want an Empire Strikes Back cliffhanger unless you know you’re gonna do a third movie—you want to leave it open but also wrap it up. So that’s very much what we did on this movie. It has a definitive ending but very much open to the next chapter.”
It should be pointed out that there are two big obstacles for this dream crossover. First is the fact that while Legendary produces both sets of movies, the ‘Pacific Rim’ films are distributed by Universal Pictures, while the ‘Godzilla’ and ‘Kong’ movies are released by Warner Bros. Now they could play nice and deliver what would surely be a crowd-pleaser, but that’s easier said than done. And second, unfortunately, ‘Pacific Rim Uprising’ has to perform. Despite being well-received, the first movie got drowned out during the competitive summer season. If ‘Uprising’ can’t do better in the less competitive spring, don’t expect to see any more Jaegers lumbering across silver screens.
What do you think? Are you excited about ‘Pacific Rim Uprising’? Would you like to see the Jaegers take on Godzilla, King Kong, and company?
Directed by Steven S. DeKnight, ‘Pacific Rim: Uprising’ stars John Boyega, Rinko Kikuchi, Scott Eastwood, Cailee Spaeny, Tian Jing, Charlie Day, Adria Arjona, Burn Gorman and opens in theaters on March 23, 2018.
Jax's earliest memory is of watching 'Batman,' followed shortly by a memory of playing Batman & Robin with a friend, which entailed running outside in just their underwear and towels as capes. When adults told them they couldn't run around outside in their underwear, both boys promptly whipped theirs off and ran around in just capes.
