Summary

• A live-action Pacific Rim prequel TV series is in development, expanding the franchise in a surprising way.
• Despite interest in a third movie, the franchise is focusing on a prequel TV show instead.
• The series could explore the opening of the Breach in 2013 and the first battles with Kaiju.

The world of Pacific Rim will now expand with a new TV series, and it wasn’t the expansion I was expecting from this franchise. Guillermo del Toro has brought a variety of stories to life throughout his career as a filmmaker, and one of his best yet most surprising works is Pacific Rim. Following his work on Hellboy II: The Golden Army, del Toro moved to another fantasy world, though now of his very own, in 2013 with the sci-fi monster film Pacific Rim, which introduced viewers to the Kaiju and the Jaegers built to defeat them.

Pacific Rim followed Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam), a retired Jaeger pilot who was pulled back into action to team up with rookie pilot Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi) in a last-ditch effort to defeat the Kaiju. Pacific Rim was well-received by critics and became a box-office success, marking the beginning of a franchise. Pacific Rim got a sequel in 2018, titled Pacific Rim: Uprising, but it couldn’t match the quality and success of the first movie. The franchise is now expanding with a new TV project, which came as a surprise as I was expecting another type of expansion.

Pacific Rim’s Live-Action TV Show Is Surprising After 2 Theatrical Movies

Pacific Rim Is Expanding But Not As I Expected

Despite Pacific Rim: Uprising not being as successful as its predecessor, there’s still interest in a third movie.

The success of Pacific Rim and the richness of its world made way for expansions, so it wasn’t surprising that it got a sequel (in fact, it was expected). Pacific Rim: Uprising didn’t count on del Toro and Hunnam, and instead, it was directed by Steven S. DeKnight and starred John Boyega as Jake Pentecost, son of Idris Elba’s Stacker Pentecost. Despite Pacific Rim: Uprising not being as successful as its predecessor, there’s still interest in a third movie, more so if it can bring back del Toro as writer and director and Hunnam as Raleigh.

Talks about a third Pacific Rim movie began a couple of months before Pacific Rim: Uprising was released, with DeKnight revealing there were ideas for it, but its development depended on the success of the second movie. Even though a lot of time has ed and no is expanding with a prequel TV series.

Variety revealed that a live-action Pacific Rim prequel TV series is currently in development, which isn’t really the expansion I was expecting for the franchise. A third movie would have made a lot more sense, whether a sequel to Pacific Rim: Uprising, to the first movie (in a reboot way), an interquel, or a spinoff, more so given the popularity of the first movie.

What Will The Pacific Rim Prequel Show Look Like?

The Pacific Rim TV Show Can Be Interesting & Exciting

The live-action Pacific Rim prequel TV show could go back to 2013 and the opening of the Breach.

Although plot details about the Pacific Rim live-action prequel TV series haven’t been revealed, the first minutes of del Toro’s movie can give a good idea of what to expect. It was explained in the first minutes of Pacific Rim that, in 2013, an interdimensional portal known as “the Breach”, opened at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, letting massive monsters known as Kaiju cross over into our world. The Kaiju attacked coastal cities, so in response, gigantic humanoid mechas known as Jaegers were built.

This marked the beginning of a war between Kaiju and humans/Jaegers, with Pacific Rim taking place seven years after the Breach was opened. The live-action Pacific Rim prequel TV show, then, could go back to 2013 and the opening of the Breach, along with the arrival of the first Kaiju and the destruction it caused. The show could also cover the development of the first Jaegers and the pilots who tested them, along with the defeat of the first Kaiju. Visually speaking, I can only hope that it will have the same quality as del Toro’s movie.

The Prequel Won’t Be Pacific Rim’s First TV Show

Pacific Rim Once Got An Animated TV Show

In 2021, Netflix released Pacific Rim: The Black, an animated TV series set after the events of Pacific Rim: Uprising.

The live-action Pacific Rim prequel TV show is the first of its kind in the franchise, but it isn’t its first TV show. In 2021, Netflix released Pacific Rim: The Black, an animated TV series set after the events of Pacific Rim: Uprising. The Black followed teenage siblings Taylor and Hayley, whose parents left to combat the Kaiju but never returned. After finding an abandoned Jaeger, the siblings piloted it to cross the Kaiju-inhabited area and find their parents.

Despite getting good reviews, Pacific Rim: The Black ended in 2022 after two seasons, though it got a prequel graphic novel that same year. Hopefully, the live-action Pacific Rim prequel TV series will have a much brighter future wherever it ends up streaming or premiering, and I really hope it will be the expansion fans have been waiting for if there won’t be a third movie.

Source: Variety.