2013 and 2014 brought us some major kaiju action with Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim and Gareth Edward’s Godzilla. The former was, in my opinion, an absurdly entertaining film that was packed with action, spectacle, and excitement. How many movies can you say have a robot beating a giant monster across the head with an oil tanker, huh?
The latter was…something. There really were some great moments in Godzilla but it was hampered by the fact that we barely got to see the titular creature, who got, at most, 11 minutes of screentime in the entire film. However, it did a fantastic job of making the character feel dangerous and larger-than-life. Plus, made my hair stand on end.
Sequels for both films are currently in the works and there are rumors that the two universes will crossover at some point in the future, although it’ll have to wait for Godzilla and King Kong to square off in 2020. But if we focus for a second on each film’s sequel, we’ll get to enjoy some forward momentum as they both have new titles: Godzilla: King of Monsters and Pacific Rim: Uprising.
The former is being directed by Michael Dougherty (Trick ‘r Treat, Krampus) while the latter has Steven S. DeKnight (Netflix’s “Daredevil”) at the helm. Pacific Rim: Uprising is confirmed to star John Boyega (Attack the Block, The Force Awakens) as the son of Idris Elba’s character Stacker Pentecost. That film has a release date of February 23rd, 2018. Meanwhile, Dougherty’s Godzilla: King of Monsters is on the schedule for March 22nd, 2019.
The news came from a press release about Legendary hiring some new folk at the upper levels, which you can read over at ComingSoon.net.
