Pacific Rim
is getting the TV show treatment at Prime Video, a new report reveals. Directed by Guillermo del Toro, the first movie in the sci-fi action franchise was released in 2013, depicting a world in which humans pilot large mechs called Jaegers in order to defeat monsters that spawn from an interdimensional portal at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean called the Breach. The film was a modest success, leading to the release of sequel Pacific Rim: Uprisingin 2018 and a Netflix anime called Pacific Rim: The Black, which ran for two seasons on Netflix beginning in 2021.

After first reported to be in the works last year, Variety now reveals that the Pacific Rim TV show has found a home at Prime Video following a new deal between Amazon MGM Studios and Legendary Television. Eric Heisserer is still expected to serve as writer and executive producer for the show under his Chronology banner. The series will be a prequel to the feature films, but plot information beyond that is not known. It’s also unclear when it could release. In addition, Variety notes that, according to their sources, there could eventually be more Pacific Rim movies.

What This Means For The Pacific Rim Franchise

The Show Can Be A Return To Form After Uprising’s Disappointment

Grossing $411 million worldwide on an estimated $190 million, the first Pacific Rim may be del Toro’s highest-grossing movie, but it wasn’t a monster hit. It did, however, earn generally positive reviews from critics and audiences. Uprising, which was made on an estimated budget of $150 million and was instead directed by Steven S. DeKnight, was a disappointment critically and commercially, grossing only $290 million. Pacific Rim: The Black season 1 was met with a generally positive reception.

The upcoming live-action Pacific Rim show, then, has an opportunity to reinvigorate the franchise. Heisserer recently served as the showrunner for Netflix’s Shadow and Bone. (2021), which, despite a positive reception, was cancelled after only two seasons. The show, however, struck a chord with audiences, with fan campaign sprouting up to call for its return. Heisserer’s other work is a bit of a mixed bag, as he wrote the acclaimed Arrival (2016) and the successful Bird Box (2018), but also less successful projects like Bloodshot (2020) and 2011’s The Thing remake.

Our Take On The Pacific Rim TV Show

One Apple TV+ Series Shows A Promising Path Forward For The Project

Del Toro’s direction was seemingly a major reason for the first Pacific Rim movie’s success, and it could be a challenge for the TV show to recapture this with different creatives at the helm, and likely with more budgetary constraints. A major part of the appeal of the franchise is the premise of giant mechs fighting giant monsters, and this feels like a premise more naturally suited to the big screen rather than the small screen.

That being said, Apple TV+’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (2023) recently proved that kaiju action on the small screen can still be entertaining, especially with that show having put a greater focus on character. As a prequel, the Pacific Rim series could explore the origins of the Breach, with a big emphasis put on suspense, in addition to sci-fi action. It remains to be seen whether the series will manage to recapture the success of that first del Toro Pacific Rim, but it is evidently now one step closer to coming to fruition.

Source: Variety

Pacific Rim

Summary

The Pacific Rim franchise is a sci-fi action series centered around humanity’s battle against giant, monstrous creatures known as Kaiju. To combat these threats, humans pilot massive robots called Jaegers. The franchise began with the 2013 film directed by Guillermo del Toro and has since expanded into sequels, an animated series, comic books, and more, blending elements of mecha anime and kaiju films.