With PACIFIC RIM 2 now confirmed, not to mention further graphic novels and an animated series, writer/director Guillermo del Toro has been speaking to The Wall Street Journal about the future of the franchise.

After confirming official design work on PACIFIC RIM 2 will start in August, del Toro said, “It was hard to create a world that did not come from a comic book, that had its own mythology, so we had to sacrifice many aspects to be able to cram everything in the first movie. Namely, for example, ‘the Drift,’ which was an interesting concept. Then there was this portal that ripped a whole into the fabric of our universe, what were the tools they were using? And we came up with a really, really interesting idea. I don’t want to spoil it, but I think at the end of the second movie, people will find out that the two movies stand on their own. They’re very different from each other, although hopefully bringing the same joyful giant spectacle. But the tenor of the two movies will be quite different.”

On the topic of the animated series, he added, “We are talking about all the possibilities in terms of networks. We’re formulating ideas that are, again, interesting and not the usual route, but the series tackles the stories that happened to pilots working in the Shatterdome, but also cadets learning how to become pilots. All of this happens prior to the first movie, and it gives you a little more depth into the background of certain characters that will appear in the second movie.”

Addressing the graphic novels that will follow PACIFIC RIM: TALES FROM YEAR ZERO, del Toro revealed, “So by the time the second movie comes out, you will have probably one year of the animation airing, and you will have three years of the comic book series ongoing, so we are trying for all these things to be canon, to be in the same universe, to not wing anything, so that if anyone… a lot of kids, for example, have discovered PACIFIC RIM through the toys. They come in through the toys, and then they watch the movie, and then they learn this, they learn that through the movie or the comic book series, so we’re trying to make it canon so we can expand the universe. And by the time we come into the second movie, you have a good feel for the world, and we can dedicate ourselves to character and ideas and spectacle.”

Sounds like del Toro and his team are going to be extremely busy over the next few years, although you get the impression that del Toro wouldn’t have it any other way.

PACIFC RIM 2 is scheduled for a 7th April, 2017 release.

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