Pacific Rim Uprising Director Reveals Scrapped Multiverse Plan for Unmade Third Film (Exclusive)

One of the great injustices of our time, is the fact that the Pacific Rim film franchise never really took off as a cultural phenomenon. The very concept of giant robots punching giant monsters — and vice versa — is as awesome and spectacle-driven as blockbuster propositions get. Gargantuan brawlers leveling skyscrapers and turning motor vehicles into weapons seriously scratches that imaginative childhood itch, and yet, Hollywood only made two of these things (plus an anime series) when we should at least have five by now. Don't forget: the whole thing started with Guillermo del Toro, one of the most creative cinematic storytellers of our time. This is how we repay him? Shame on us!

It's all the more disheartening when you take into account that Pacific Rim Uprising (now available to own from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment alongside its 2013 predecessor; the latter is also streaming on Peacock) ended on a tantalizing cliffhanger: Humanity would take the colossal fight to the Precursor dimension from whence the Kaiju came. Had that third movie materialized, Uprising director Steven S. DeKnight (Spartacus, Daredevil) planned to unlock the door to the multiverse — long before it became fashionable to do so.

Pacific Rim Uprising Director Shares Wild Story Idea for Unmade Third Film

"My plan was you actually find out that these Kaiju are not willing monsters — they're being controlled and abused [by the Precursors]," DeKnight reveals to SYFY WIRE over a Zoom call about his debut graphic novels: Beneath (Comixology) and Hard Bargain (Humanoids). "And basically, the humans set a bunch of them free. That third act was going to be Jaegers and Kaiju fighting together. Leading to the end of the movie, my plan was basically the multiverse of that particular franchise, where the humans can now travel through all of these different dimensions."

He continues: "There was going to be — I’m trying to parse my words because I never know if they're actually going to make another one —  a big reunion at the end that kind of brought the story all together ... that ending would also have tied into the Monster-Verse with Legendary, so you could have crossovers with the Pacific Rim franchise and the Kong and Godzilla franchises."

Unfortunately, the sequel barely broke even, grossing $290 million globally against a pricey budget of $150 million. The original didn't fare much better, netting just over $400 million worldwide on a budget of almost $200 million. "It's a question of, ‘Can they get enough audience to support [a continuation]?’" DeKnight concedes. "Because the movies are really, really expensive. But I would personally love to see Guillermo del Toro return and do a third one."

Uprising had also been plagued by development issues since its inception. The original plan was to bring Charlie Hunnam back to play veteran Jaeger pilot Raleigh Beckett, but this fell through when the actor boarded director Michael Noer's remake of Papillon. As a result, DeKnight pivoted to a story about Jake Pentecost (John Boyega), party boy progeny of the late Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba). A crunched production timeline also added to the director's woes.

"I was hired … I believe it was somewhere around [February] of 2016, with the idea that we would start shooting that same time next year," he remembers. "I was a week into breaking the story with a team of writers when I was told, ‘Oh, actually, we've gotta move it up. You’ve got to start shooting October of this year.’ And I was like, ‘A year of prep wasn't enough for a movie this gigantic and now I have no prep.’"

He describes the production as "a mad scramble" and "real seat-of-your-pants filmmaking," going on to add: "I always say it's a miracle that it's semi-coherent." With that said, DeKnight wouldn't trade the experience for anything.

"I'm incredibly thankful and fortunate that I got the opportunity to do that movie," he concludes. "I learned a lot and I'm going to really apply that to the next movie I make. I had always gone through life thinking, 'Man, I'd really liked to make these big, big action movies!’ Then I did one and it's like, ‘Hmm…’ [laughs] ‘You know what? I think I might have a better time and more success helming smaller movies in the $20 to $30 million range. More character-driven, which is some of the stuff that I'm working on right now. But look, I've got toys from my movie behind me. As a kid, growing up in nowhere New Jersey, in the early ‘80s, it's a dream come true."

Pacific Rim is now streaming on Peacock. Uprising is available to purchase from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.