If you have a movie franchise these days, even if it isn’t that successful, you evidently have to make it a cinematic universe. It’s just a rule now. Studios want money and the way to make money these days is assumed to be a cinematic universe, even if Marvel has been the only studio to really pull it off so far. That’s why it isn’t a surprise to hear the news that Pacific Rim: Uprising is planned as a springboard into a full universe of Jaeger vs. Kaiju based movies.
Talking to Nerdist director Steven S. DeKnight said he’s hoping that this movie does well so they can make a third film that will begin the spin-offs.
“I’m certainly hoping so. I think you’ll definitely probably get more comics. The plan was always to use this movie as a launching pad. If enough people show up to this, we’ve already talked about the plot of the third movie, and how the end of the third movie would expand the universe to a Star Wars/Star Trek-style [franchise or series] where you can go in many, many different directions. You can go main canon, you can go spin-offs, you can go one-offs. Yeah, that’s the plan. And I would love to see an animated TV show based on this.”
I’m… not so enthused about that. Aside from thinking the first film wasn’t all that much, this just seems like another desperate attempt to expand something that doesn’t need expanding. Yes, there’s an interesting concept here and they’re stretching the world out over decades between the sequels, but, man, it’s just giant robots punching monsters. Maybe the second film will deliver something more, but as it stands an entire universe around this doesn’t seem all that interesting.
Pacific Rim Cinematic Universe Planned (Nerdist)
