It has been years since Pacific Rim rose its way into theaters, and the mech movie shows anime fans what could be. It is no secret the medium flounders in Hollywood, but Guillermo del Toro blended some of anime’s best mech moments into this hit film. Sadly, Pacific Rim bungled its landing with a flopped sequel, and nobody is more upset about that than Toro… especially since his original script for it sounds downright epic.
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The information comes straight from The Wrap as Toro spoke about Pacific Rim‘s sequel with the publication. It was there the director admitted his original story was wildly different from the one found in Pacific Rim: Uprising, and honestly? We wish got the first story instead.
According to Toro, his script focused on a high-tech villain, and that isn’t even the best part. The director felt Maki Mori should have been the lead in the sequel whereas Pacific Rim: Uprising chose to kill her off as a side character.
“The villain was this tech guy that had invented basically sort of the internet 2.0. And then they realized that all his patents came to him one morning. And so little by little, they started putting together this and they said, ‘Oh, he got them from the precursors.’ The guys that control the kaiju. And then we found out that the precursors are us thousands of years in the future. They’re trying to terraform, trying to re-harvest the earth to survive. Wow. And that we were in exo-bio-suits that looked alien, but they were not. We were inside. And it was a really interesting paradox,” Toro shared.
Continuing, the director touched upon Maki’s role and his desire to see her role in Pacific Rim expand. “To me, the hero was Mako Mori,” Toro admitted. “I wanted her not only to live, I wanted her to be one of the main characters in the second movie.”
Clearly, a lot in Pacific Rim‘s sequel behind the scenes, and fans ultimately agree it was for the worst. Toro’s vision would have honored the story and characters fans fell for the first time around. Instead, Pacific Rim: Uprising left them aghast at how Maki was treated, and the movie’s lacking visual effects nailed the coffin shut. Now, it seems unlikely Pacific Rim will get the chance to fix its mistakes, leaving fans to wonder how the series might be today if Toro’s script had been kept untouched.
What do you think about Toro’s original vision of Pacific Rim? Do you think the franchise deserves a second chance? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB.
