Despite the slow box office performance of "Pacific Rim," a sequel has been plodding along forward, now with the first film's director Guillermo del Toro as producer and "Daredevil" season 1 showrunner Steven DeKnight as director. According to the Hollywood Reporter, development is still ongoing, with Derek Connolly now working on the script.
Connolly is best known for working on the script of "Jurassic World," one of the highest-earning films of 2015. However, the report does not clarify if Connolly is working on a page-one rewrite or if he is touching up aspects of the script, working on what del Torro, Zak Penn and Jon Spaihts already drafted.
The writer previously worked on "Safety Not Guaranteed" and reportedly impressed the studios with his work on the upcoming "Kong: Skull Island." He has also worked on the script for the upcoming "Jurassic World 2" and "Intelligent Life." As stated by /Film, he is also working on the script for "Star Wars: Episode IX."
According to the report, one of the earlier drafts, presumably by del Toro, sets the film many years after the first film and now the giant robots known as Jaegers are commonplace. It is presumed that the aliens from the first film have begun retaliating against the humans following their defeat.
Both Charlie Hunnam and Rinko Kikuchi are said to reprise their roles as Raleigh Becket and Mako Mori, respectively. It is undetermined if Charlie Day, Burn Gorman and Ron Perlman will be coming back as well.
For a very long time it was undetermined if a sequel to "Pacific Rim" was ever going to be made given that the movie did not earn as much as the studios had hoped for domestically. Fortunately the film did garner more than $411 million worldwide due to the international market, prompting the studios to take a chance and green-light a sequel.
