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 thePacific Rimfranchise 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 isPacific Rim. Directed by Guillermo del Toro and written by him and Travis Beachman,Pacific Rimtakes the audience to a future where humans face massive alien monsters called Kaiju.
To battle these creatures, humanity builds massive mecha called Jaegers, each one co-piloted by two or more people through a mental link called “the Drift.”Pacific Rimfollows 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 ofPacific Rimon 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 byPacific Rimwill now be filled with two big franchises about giant robots that are coming to the big screen with live-action movies. First isVoltron, an adaptation of the 1980s animated TV series of the same name. The originalVoltronTV series aired from 1984 to 1985, with two sequel series between 1998 and 2012 and a reboot in 2016.Voltronfollows a team of five young pilots commanding five robot lions which, when combined, form Voltron, a giant super robot. Alive-actionVoltronmoviehas been in development since 2005, but it faced many obstacles for years.
Voltronis being directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, and its cast includes Henry Cavill.
In 2022, the live-actionVoltronmovie was back in development, and it has been for real this time.Voltronis being directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, and its cast includes Henry Cavill, Rita Ora, Alba Baptista, Sterling K. Brown, and more.Voltronwill 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,Voltrondoesn’t have a projected release date, but it started filming in December 2024.
Next isGundam, based on the franchise of the same name. The world ofGundamnbegan in 1979 with the TV seriesMobile Suit Gundam, which was key in defining the “real robot” mecha anime genre.Gundamis 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-actionGundammovie 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 theGundamlive-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 Rimwas a critical success, though not so much a box office one, though it performed a lot better outside the United States.Pacific Rimwas 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 Rimwas popular enough to expand to other media, along with a theatrical sequel, though without Del Toro directing.
In 2013,Pacific Rimgot a video game, appropriately titledPacific Rim: The Video Game, which received negative reviews. Then came the Netflix anime seriesPacific 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 Blackran for two seasons, ending in 2022.
The Best Pacific Rim Sequel Came Out In 2021 And Was Much Better Than Uprising
The franchise-launching Pacific Rim film had a great sequel project come out in recent years — and it actually wasn’t Pacific Rim: Uprising.
Despite the potential established by Del Toro’s movie, thePacific Rimfranchise 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 ofVoltronandGundam’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 whatPacific Rimcould 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 afterPacific Rim, the sequel,Pacific Rim Uprising, was released. Now directed and co-written by Steven S. DeKnight,Pacific Rim Uprisingis 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 Uprisingcouldn’t live up to Del Toro’s movie, with critics pointing out its story, characters, and story as flawsand calling them “inferior” to the first movie.
The Biggest Difference Between Del Toro’s Pacific Rim & Uprising Explains Why The Sequel Was Not As Good
Pacific Rim: Uprising was famously a downgrade from the original film, and one del Toro trick explains why the action was so much worse.
Pacific Rim Uprisingdidn’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 Uprisingwas 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 thanUprising, 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 Rimis 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. ThePacific Rimprequel serieswas 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 ofPacific Rimon the big screen, there have been no updates on a potential third movie, especially after the failure ofUprising. On top of that, Del Toro has been busy with other projects, most recently his long-awaited take onFrankenstein, soPacific Rimmight not return to the big screen, but hopefully, the live-action prequel will become a reality and will live up to the first movie.
