Pacific Rim is the kind of movie whose spectacle and literally larger-than-life characters demand a franchise. That's why it's a special kind of frustrating to see Transformers movies come out seemingly left and right while a sequel to the far more original giant-robot movie struggles to get off the ground. The reasons for Pacific Rim 2's slow start, though, aren't entirely box office related.
Legendary Pictures, which produced the first film, shifted its partnership with Warner Bros. to Universal, which is a level of lawyers and paperwork and contracts that would surely make anybody's head spin. And in addition to the studio shift, there was a director shift from Guillermo del Toro to Steven S. DeKnight (Netflix's Daredevil), which always comes with its own complicated layers. So for a while it seemed like maybe the stars just wouldn't align for Pacific Rim 2.
But now they have. And better yet, they even involve a Star Wars star. John Boyega has signed on for Pacific Rim 2.
Boyega will play the son of Idris Elba's Stacker Pentecost from the first movie, so basically he's stepping in as the heir to the guy who dared cancel the apocalypse the first time around. It's a good thing those aren't big shoes to fill or anything.
We don't yet know what form the apocalypse will be taking this time, but since the first movie teased that its alien invaders still had more to throw at Earth, we're sure it'll be something huge that a huge robot can cut in half with a huge sword.
Pacific Rim 2 does not have a release date yet, but Boyega's casting also indicates the path has been cleared for the sequel. The paperwork is being sorted, the ink is drying, and hopefully in a couple years you'll be able to do a double bill with a new Boyega Star Wars and a Boyega Pacific Rim. Now we just need to get an Attack the Block 2 sorted out...
