Guillermo del Toro’s love letter to movies and TV shows about giant piloted-robots battling giant monsters, Pacific Rim is getting a sequel in 2018 in the form of Pacific Rim: Uprising. Daredevil season 1 showrunner and Spartacus TV show creator Steven DeKnight is calling the shots on the Pacific Rim sequel, though del Toro helped to get the project off the ground after it was seemingly-almost canceled, apocalypse-style. Meanwhile, in front of the camera, the Star Wars franchise’s John Boyega is leading the way as the son of Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba), from the first Pacific Rim installment.

The majority of the cast members reported for Pacific Rim: Uprising thus far have been franchise newcomers, presumed to be playing Boyega’s fellow Jaeger pilots in the sequel. It was previously confirmed by Charlie Hunnam that his Pacific Rim character, Raleigh Becket, would not be returning in the followup film as a result of scheduling conflicts. However, we now at last have a sequel-related update (of sorts) about Hunnam’s costar in the original Pacific Rim, Rinko Kikuchi.

It’s long been presumed that Kikuchi would show up as Mako Mori - Pacific Rim’s co-protagonist as well as (in essence) Pentecost’s adopted daughter - in Uprising in some capacity. A photo posted to Instagram (see below) by Pacific Rim: Uprising cinematographer Daniel Mindel appears to confirm just that, as Kikuchi’s name is visible on a cast list posted to the camera featured in Mindel’s photo. Perhaps more intriguing though, is the appearance of Karl Urban’s name on that same list, suggesting that the Dredd and Star Trek star is also going to be appearing in the Pacific Rim sequel.

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A photo posted by Dan Mindel ASC, BSC,SASC (@dan_mindel) on Jan 8, 2017 at 3:29am PST

The cast list shown in Mindel’s photo also seemingly confirms that Charlie Day and Burn Gorman are reprising their Pacific Rim roles as, respectively, Dr. Newton Geiszler and his scientist buddy Hermann Gottlieb in Uprising. That list also includes previously-reported Uprising costars Scott Eastwood (Suicide Squad) and Cailee Spaeny (who is said to be playing a lead character in the film), so it stands to reason that Kikuchi and Urban are cast members like the other names included here. For the time being however, that remains officially “unconfirmed”.

UPDATE: Karl Urban is now claiming that he’s not involved with Pacific Rim: Uprising (see the tweet below), but has yet to offer an explanation for why what certainly looks like his name is in the photo posted by Mindel.

Hey Peter ,No , I’m not part of this project ,Look forward to seeing it though.??? https://t.co/JMB73zm9Zd— Karl Urban (@KarlUrban) January 9, 2017

With so many new characters debuting in the second Pacific Rim installment, it stands to reason that the film will serve as much as an expansion of the Pacific Rim universe as it will a direct continuation of plot threads featured in the first chapter. The majority of the storylines in the first Pacific Rim were resolved by the end anyway, so taking something of a soft reboot approach - as DeKnight and his collaborators appear to be doing with Uprising - might yet prove to be the best way of making sure the franchise keeps moving forward in an interesting and worthwhile fashion. Any movie that costars Karl Urban is at least doing something right.

Source: Daniel Mindel

Update Source: Karl Urban

  • Pacific Rim: Uprising Release Date: 2018-03-23