Guillermo del Toro’s giant mechs versus kaiju classic Pacific Rim is getting a prequel TV series courtesy of Legendary Entertainment.
Over a decade after it emerged from the cinematic waters, Guillermo del Toro’s monster movie Pacific Rim is getting a prequel TV series, it’s been announced. In development at production company Legendary Entertainment – which also produced the 2013 film – it’s being written by Eric Heisserer, the screenwriter whose most acclaimed piece of work to date is undoubtedly his script for 2016’s Arrival.
Of the series, Jason Clodfelter, boss of Legendary’s TV division, said in a statement to Deadline, “Eric is a multitalented, prolific creator whose track record of critical and commercial successes speaks for itself. We are thrilled to launch our partnership with Eric, Chronology, and Carmen, with a new entry in the epic, globally popular Pacific Rim universe.”
Co-written by del Toro and Travis Beacham, Pacific Rim introduced a future world under attack from gigantic monsters who emerge from a rift in time and space located at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean (hence the film’s title). To combat the menace, humanity constructs absolutely colossal robots which require two pilots to operate; these are then used to punch those monsters repeatedly until they die and fall over onto skyscrapers.
It was brilliant fun – a $180m love letter to kaiju movies and mecha anime – and just successful enough to warrant a sequel, Pacific Rim Uprising, directed by Steven S DeKnight and released in 2018. There was also an animated TV series, Pacific Rim: The Black, which appeared on Netflix in 2021 and ran for 14 episodes.
Little is known about the prequel series at present, though presumably it’ll explore how the rift beneath the ocean opened up, and the development of those giant robots, dubbed Jaegers.
Heisserer, whose earlier work includes the remakes of A Nightmare On Elm Street (2010) and The Thing (2011) as well as Netflix hit Bird Box (2018) is a busy chap of late; he’s also working on Dissolution, an adaptation of Nicholas Binge’s Inception-like sci-fi novel, for Sony Pictures.
More on the Pacific Rim prequel series as it comes in.
