'Pacific Rim' Anime Series Announced by Netflix

The Pacific Rim franchise is about to live on in a pretty surprising way.Netflix recently [...]

The Pacific Rim franchise is about to live on in a pretty surprising way.

Netflix recently announced a whole new slew of programming at their Asian showcase event -- including a Pacific Rim anime series. The series, which will come from Netflix and Legendary Entertainment, will put a whole new spin of the Kaiju/Jaeger conflict. You can check out the synopsis for the series (via The Hollywood Reporter) below.

"Returning to the epic battle of Kaiju and Jeagers, this original anime series will expand upon the story of the first two live action movies and follow two siblings — an idealistic teenage boy and his naïve younger sister — who are forced to pilot an abandoned Jaeger across a hostile landscape in a desperate attempt to find their missing parents."

Pacific Rim first made a splash with Guillermo del Toro's 2013 film, which was succeeded by Pacific Rim Uprising earlier this year. While that latter film didn't necessarily make the biggest splash at the box office, a third film - or some other expansion of the franchise - has been seen as a definite possibility, with animated series and comics in the works since 2014.

"There's been a lot of discussion about that possibility [of crossing over]," Uprising director Steven DeKnight said of one of the more outrageous possibilities - crossing over with Godzilla and King Kong - last year. "Look, I think it would be fantastic to have the Pacific Rim universe join Legendary's Monster Universe, it seems like a natural step. And part of the big overall plan after the third movie we've talked about is that could happen, it's always a possibility. It's by far not a certainty; it's merely theoretical at this point, but as a fan myself I would love to see that happen."

This Pacific Rim anime series will be co-showrun by Thor: Ragnarok writer Craig Kyle, and X-Men: Evolution's Greg Johnson. It is unclear exactly when the series will debut.

The series is just the latest project announced by the streaming titan, including an animated film about Altered Carbon, as well as several other original series.

"Asia is home to the world's great creative centers producing some of the most compelling films and series of today," said Ted Sarandos, chief content officer for Netflix. "The beauty of Netflix is that we can take never-seen before stories from South Korea, Thailand, Japan, India, Taiwan or elsewhere, and easily connect them to people all over Asia and the world. More than half of Asian content hours viewed on Netflix this year are viewed outside the region, so we have confidence that our upcoming slate of Asian productions will find fans in their home countries and abroad."

Will you be adding a Pacific Rim anime series to your Netflix queue? Share your thoughts with us in the comment below!

5comments