Following the clip, Tull and Del Toro fielded questions from the press and we had to ask the two how Pacific Rim and Legendary’s 2014 summer tentpole, Godzilla, were different.
Tull enforced that it was never their intent to do two giant monster movies, however, “tonally, the films are completely different,” he said, citing last year’s Comic-Con teaser as an accurate portrayal of Godzilla‘s tone. “[Godzilla] is a disaster movie,” said Tull. “What if this really happened, what would it be like?”
Del Toro backed that up by saying Godzilla director Gareth Edwards was operating in a real environment with an exceptional creature. Pacific Rim, on the other hand, was about “world creation” in an alternate universe that built a mythology all its own.
As for sequel talk, Del Toro revealed he and screenwriter Travis Beacham have been talking about ideas for a follow up and are writing an outline that goes “in a very different route from the first one.”
The filmmaker went on to say that the sequel will have a Mexican Jaeger. Apparently one was intended for Pacific Rim, but wound up not making the cut. “We basically couldn’t afford it,” Del Toro laughed. “He was the most expensive Jaeger.”
Tull added that, of course, whether a sequel or not really happens depends on how the film performs and how the fans respond, but it seems that Pacific Rim could live on in other incarnations after the film’s release.
One medium to utilize is comic books. Legendary has already released a prequel graphic novel, written by Beacham, but future stories can spin off in the comic book realm. Another avenue is video games that would explore the mythology.
