As the film industry continues to seize the popularity of live-action movies and adaptations of known worlds, it now has two upcoming giant robot movies, which make the fate of the Pacific Rim franchise even more disappointing. When sci-fi and monster films collide, the results are some of the most exciting and entertaining stories, and falling into this category is Pacific Rim. Directed by Guillermo del Toro and written by him and Travis Beachman, Pacific Rim takes the audience to a future where humans face mᴀssive alien monsters called Kaiju.
To battle these creatures, humanity builds mᴀssive mecha called Jaegers, each one co-piloted by two or more people through a mental link called “the Drift.” Pacific Rim follows washed-up Jaeger pilot Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam), who is called back into action to team up with rookie pilot Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi) as part of a last-ditch effort to defeat the Kaiju. The world of Pacific Rim on the big screen has been quiet for years, and two similar upcoming movies only make the franchise’s fate more disappointing.
Voltron And Gundam Are Both Getting Live-Action Movies
Two Popular Robot Franchises Are Coming To The Big Screen
The void left by Pacific Rim will now be filled with two big franchises about giant robots that are coming to the big screen with live-action movies. First is Voltron, an adaptation of the 1980s animated TV series of the same name. The original Voltron TV series aired from 1984 to 1985, with two sequel series between 1998 and 2012 and a reboot in 2016. Voltron follows a team of five young pilots commanding five robot lions which, when combined, form Voltron, a giant super robot. A live-action Voltron movie has been in development since 2005, but it faced many obstacles for years.
Voltron is being directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, and its cast includes Henry Cavill.
In 2022, the live-action Voltron movie was back in development, and it has been for real this time. Voltron is being directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, and its cast includes Henry Cavill, Rita Ora, Alba Baptista, Sterling K. Brown, and more. Voltron will follow the same premise as the TV show, and it has been teased to stay true to the heart of it. At the time of writing, Voltron doesn’t have a projected release date, but it started filming in December 2024.
Next is Gundam, based on the franchise of the same name. The world of Gundamn began in 1979 with the TV series Mobile Suit Gundam, which was key in defining the “real robot” mecha anime genre. Gundam is set during times of war between the Earth Federation and Zeon, and follows a young and inexperienced crew whose best hope of making it through the war is a giant humanoid robot known as Gundam and its teenage pilot.
A live-action Gundam movie was first announced in 2018, and in 2021, Netflix was involved. In 2024, however, Jim Mickle was announced as director, and Netflix was no longer attached to the project. The latest news about the Gundam live-action movie is that Sydney Sweeney is in talks to star, though details about her character and the movie’s plot are still unknown, along with a potential release date.
Voltron And Gundam Are A Reminder That Del Toro’s Pacific Rim Ended Too Soon
Pacific Rim’s Potential Was Wasted
As mentioned above, Pacific Rim was a critical success, though not so much a box office one, though it performed a lot better outside the United States. Pacific Rim was praised for its visual effects, visual style, and action sequences, as well as for being a homage to anime, mecha, and kaiju media. Despite its box office performance, Pacific Rim was popular enough to expand to other media, along with a theatrical sequel, though without Del Toro directing.
In 2013, Pacific Rim got a video game, appropriately тιтled Pacific Rim: The Video Game, which received negative reviews. Then came the Netflix anime series Pacific Rim: The Black, released in 2021, which followed two siblings piloting an abandoned Jaeger across a hostile landscape while looking for their parents. Pacific Rim: The Black ran for two seasons, ending in 2022.
Despite the potential established by Del Toro’s movie, the Pacific Rim franchise didn’t know how to seize it, and after the failure of the sequel, the franchise hasn’t come near the big screen again. The development of Voltron and Gundam’s live-action movies proves that there’s still an audience for movies from the genre of giant robots, and is a painful reminder of what Pacific Rim could have been had it not ended so soon.
Why The Pacific Rim Franchise Never Lived Up To Del Toro’s 2013 Movie
The Franchise Hasn’t Replicated The First Movie’s Success
Five years after Pacific Rim, the sequel, Pacific Rim Uprising, was released. Now directed and co-written by Steven S. DeKnight, Pacific Rim Uprising is set a decade after the events of the first movie, and follows former pilot Jake Pentecost (John Boyega), the son of Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba), who returns to the Pan Pacific Defense Corps to prevent a renewed Kaiju threat. Despite the familiar premise, Pacific Rim Uprising couldn’t live up to Del Toro’s movie, with critics pointing out its story, characters, and story as flaws and calling them “inferior” to the first movie.
Pacific Rim Uprising didn’t bring much to this world of Kaijus and Jaegers, either, lacking originality, and the absence of Del Toro as writer and director was very evident. Even visually, Pacific Rim Uprising was different from its predecessor, with the Jaegers moving differently and the visual effects looking like a downgrade rather than an upgrade from the first movie. The animated sequel series, Pacific Rim: The Black, was better received than Uprising, but that doesn’t soothe the disappointment of the latter, and it wasn’t popular enough to continue past a second season.
The Pacific Rim Franchise Is Set To Continue (But Not With A Movie)
The Pacific Rim Franchise Isn’t Over
Despite its past failures and the disappointing and premature ending of the franchise on the big screen, Pacific Rim is still alive and will continue to expand – or, at least, that has been the idea for a while. In 2024, a prequel TV series was announced to be in development with screenwriter Eric Heisserer. The Pacific Rim prequel series was announced to be a live-action project, but no plot details were revealed. Unfortunately, no more updates have been given since then, so it’s unknown if the project is still in development.
As for the future of Pacific Rim on the big screen, there have been no updates on a potential third movie, especially after the failure of Uprising. On top of that, Del Toro has been busy with other projects, most recently his long-awaited take on Frankenstein, so Pacific Rim might not return to the big screen, but hopefully, the live-action prequel will become a reality and will live up to the first movie.
Pacific Rim
- Created by
-
Guillermo del Toro, Travis Beacham
- First Film
-
Pacific Rim
- Latest Film
-
Pacific Rim: Uprising
- First TV Show
-
Pacific Rim: The Black
- Latest TV Show
-
Pacific Rim: The Black
Summary
The Pacific Rim franchise is a sci-fi action series centered around humanity’s battle against giant, monstrous creatures known as Kaiju. To combat these threats, humans pilot mᴀssive robots called Jaegers. The franchise began with the 2013 film directed by Guillermo del Toro and has since expanded into sequels, an animated series, comic books, and more, blending elements of mecha anime and kaiju films.
