Guillermo del Toro is having quite a moment. His unlikely romance The Shape of Water is currently enjoying awards' season acclaim, and a sequel to his 2013 sci-fi blockbuster Pacific Rim is also on the horizon.
Although del Toro himself is no longer attached to Pacific Rim Uprising, it looks like the upcoming film will retain the affection between its characters and the sense of imagination that made the original stand out from most action fare. Check out the second trailer below for this spring's must-see movie about robots punching aliens.
Pacific Rim: Uprising centers around Jake Pentecost (played by Star Wars' John Boyega). Jake is the ne'er-do-well son of war hero Stacker Pentecost (played to perfection by Idris Elba in the first film), who died defeating the kaiju in 2025. Earth has enjoyed relative peace since Stacker's death, and Jake spends his days carousing amidst the bones of felled kaiju and making a living through criminal exploits.
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But when the kaiju return, Jake's adopted sister Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi) recruits him to lead a new generation of jaeger pilots. The ensemble is rounded out by Cailee Spaeny as young hacker Amara, Scott Eastwood as jaeger pilot Nate, and Charlie Day reprising his role from the first movie as Dr. Newton Geiszler.
The first movie, starring Charlie Hunnam and Rinko Kikuchi, was released in 2013 and was a sleeper hit in other countries. While Del Toro has stepped out of this project as a director, we hope his influence carries on in Uprising. Unlike many action movies, in Pacific Rim Del Toro focused on keeping the color palate distinctive and bright, and he even took cues from Japanese woodblock print paintings. These influences in color and atmosphere gave the film a light and airy feel, which led to untraditional action fans being attracted to the movie.
We've got high hopes that Uprising will carry on the legacy of the original movie. Director Steven S. DeKnight has some impressive credits on his resume, including work on Marvel's Daredevil, Joss Whedon's Buffy and Dollhouse, and the Starz series Spartacus. It'll be a tough order for him to fill Guillermo del Toro's shoes, but we can't wait to see what Pacific Rim: Uprising has in store when it hits theaters on March 23rd.
Featured still from "Pacific Rim Uprising" via Warner Bros.
