"Pacific Rim" managed to please the critics and audiences alike and it earned over $411 million from its $190 million budget, guaranteeing a sequel which is now slated for a 2017 release. Director Guillermo del Toro has now revealed that the sequel will include at least half of the original film's cast — those who survived, anyway.
"I think that everybody or most everybody that survived is back. The rest we killed. We killed half the cast," del Toro told /Film in an interview following his Television Critics Association panel for his FX series "The Strain."
This means the sequel will most likely see the return of Charlie Hunnam and Rinko Kikuchi as Jaeger pilots Raleigh Becket and Mako Mori, respectively. Charlie Day and Burn Gorman are also likely to return as the obsessed Kaiju experts, scientists Dr. Newton Geiszler and Dr. Hermann Gottlieb.
There is also a chance of Ron Perlman returning as the black market trader Hannibal Chau, if the story calls for it. Chau was seen being devoured by a baby Kaiju but was able to cut his way out in the film's post-credit scene.
[Spoiler Warning] Idris Elba's Stacker Pentacost, Robert Kazinsky's Chuck Hansen, the Chinese Jaeger pilots (Mark Luu, Charles Luu, Lance Luu) and the Russian Jaeger pilots (Robert Maillet and Heather Doerksen) all died in the first film, which is reason enough not to expect them to be in the sequel.
None of the actors have officially signed on but Hunnam and Gorman have collaborated with del Toro again on his upcoming horror flick "Crimson Peak," indicating good working relationships.
No official plot for "Pacific Rim 2" has been given at the time of writing. It was previously believed that Day and Gorman would become the second film's main protagonists but del Toro shot this rumor down in the same interview.
"No, no, no, Charlie Day has a great part but so does Charlie Hunnam," the director stated.
"Pacific Rim 2" is currently slated for Aug. 4, 2017.
