Charlie Hunnam and Legendary Have Been Bullish About Pacific Rim 3. How The Franchise May Come Back In An Unexpected Way
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Legendary Entertainment is one of those companies that likes to play both sides of the aisle when it comes to comics and movies. The 2024 movie schedule saw the company stomp into theaters with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, and to some pretty spectacular results. But there’s one potential sequel that the company and actor Charlie Hunnam have been bullish on in the past: Pacific Rim 3. Six years after the last movie hit theaters, the franchise looks to be coming back in an unexpected way.
Pacific Rim: Final Breach Is The Second Sequel We’ve Always Wanted
Over on the Kickstarter page for Legendary Comics, something amazing is happening. A new campaign has been launched to fund what’s now known as Pacific Rim: Final Breach, a three-part series that’ll debut between 2025 and 2027. Serving as the official third entry in the series, the project is already well over half funded, and I can see why with a synopsis like this in the mix:
Humanity faces its ultimate threat as the Precursors unleash a new wave of devastating Kaiju assaults on Earth in Pacific Rim: Final Breach! After years of failed attempts to enter the Anteverse, the trans-dimensional realm from which all Kaiju emerge, Jake Pentecost and Hermann Gottlieb conceive a daring last-ditch plan whose success hinges on finding legendary Jaeger pilot Raleigh Becket—the only human being to ever survive behind enemy lines. Living in exile off the grid, Raleigh must choose assured annihilation or confront his past and team up with a new generation to pilot the brand-new Gipsy Destroyer, the last Jaeger standing. Tensions escalate and old wounds reopen as the PPDC finally crosses the breach to confront what lies on the other side… It’s time for humanity to meet its true enemy and cancel the apocalypse once and for all.
Ok, so we need to take a minute here and just absorb the coolness of this moment. With Avatar: The Last Airbender’s Joshua Fialkov writing the story, Pacific Rim: Final Breach could make a lot of fan’s dreams come true. That starts with the fact that while Charlie Hunnam’s Pacific Rim 3 wish to bringing back Guillermo del Toro to direct hasn’t been met, the world of comics has Raleigh Becket’s return fully on tap. Like any hero that’s missed a sequel, he’s been in seclusion.
But now John Boyega’s Jake Pentecost is ready to bring him back to join up with his Pacific Rim: Uprising squadmates; which just makes this all so much more exciting. That starts with the fulfillment of this mid-credits scene, which saw the son of Idris Elba’s Stacker Pentecost taking after his old man:
Looking at the test panels for Pacific Rim 3, I noticed that some of the art looked like a four-panel flashback to that very scene between Newt (Charlie Day) and Jake. So if I’m reading this correctly, the story for this new sequel probably kicks off with young Pentacost’s threat of the Pan Pacific Defense Corps taking the fight to the realm of the Precursors. Either that, or that image of what looks like several mech suits marching into battle is one hell of a toy show.
The Bigger Promise Pacific Rim: Final Breach Could Help Make Happen
So you’re probably wondering what’s bigger than finally seeing a threequel to the series that Guillermo del Toro helped put on the ground in 2013? Well, how about the fact that actually having Pacific Rim: Final Breach in play could finally bring about that rad MonsterVerse crossover that’s also been teased in the past? Pacific Rim: Uprising director/co-writer Steven S. Denight helped put that thought into motion confirming his proposed sequel would have laid down the path to a MonsterVerse/Pacific Rim crossover.
Considering that both this rock ‘em, sock ‘em adventure and the MonsterVerse are both under the Legendary umbrella, and plenty of expanded lore comics have given Godzilla and Kong further development, this could be something that Pacific Rim: Final Breach makes all too possible. And why not? It worked for Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong!
Ok, perhaps I’m getting a bit ahead of myself. For now, we need Pacific Rim 3 to become fully funded on Kickstarter so it can make its way into the world. After which point, we can start talking about film adaptations, Godzilla becoming friends with Gypsy Destroyer, and the potential return of Hannibal Chau! His return from being eaten by a Kaiju is considered one of the best non-MCU post credits scenes, and you can't just leave man's legacy hanging on a simple Pacific Rim: Uprising reference.
Also, there are tons of additional goodies in store for those who jump in on the deal; like pins, commissioned art and even a potential recurring role in the series! So if you’re even remotely interested in having another chance to cancel the apocalypse, you have until September 4th to enlist!
But be patient, as we have to keep in mind that Volume 1 won’t be shipped until some point in the next year, with the series playing out up until its 2027 finale. So let's hope that the special add-on companion book The Pacific Rim Mechapedia happens to ship out on the same schedule as Volume 1, as that'll give us plenty to chew over in the interim.
