Prime Video is drift-compatible with Pacific Rim. A TV spinoff of Guillermo del Toro‘s 2013 mecha vs. monsters magnum opus is coming to the streaming service. Variety reports that Eric Heisserer is writing and executive producing the series.

Heisserer is an Academy Award nominee for his Arrival script; recently, he wrote and showran Netflix’s Shadow and Bone. His Pacific Rim series is to be a prequel to the 2013 film, which previously received a 2018 sequel and a 2021 Netflix animated series. The new series will be live-action, but it does not rule out any future theatrical films in the franchise, which have lingered in development hell since 2018’s Pacific Rim: Uprising disappointed at the box office. There is no word yet on whether any of the film’s characters or cast members will return, or if the ever-busy del Toro will have any involvement with the series.

In 2013, an interdimensional rift opened beneath the Pacific Ocean, unleashing colossal kaiju monsters on humanity. To combat the creatures, humanity worked together to build enormous mecha suits, known as Jaegers, to battle the beasts. However, the mental strain of operating the mechs was too much for one person; two or more people needed to be mentally linked via “the Drift” to operate them. Over a decade later, the kaiju show no sign of stopping, and ex-Jaeger pilot Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) wages a losing battle against the monstrous hordes. A pair of oddball scientists (Burn Gorman and Charlie Day) learn that the creatures are, in fact, living bioweapons sent by a malicious alien race, prompting a last-ditch effort to seal the dimensional breach. However, the last Jaeger pilots left standing are Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam), who still bears scars from his brother’s death in battle, and Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi), an orphan of the kaiju’s rampages. They’ll have to overcome their differences and their traumas to work together and save humanity once and for all. It was a critical and commercial success, making $411 million USD on a $200 million budget, and earning a 72% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Pacific Rim was followed, five years later, by Pacific Rim: Uprising. Del Toro produced the film, which was directed and co-written by Steven S. DeKnight. It featured a mostly new cast, headlined by John Boyega, and did not match the critical or commercial success of its predecessor. Pacific Rim: The Black, a two-season Netflix animated series, ran for two seasons in 2021 and 2022; it centered around a pair of teenage siblings and their salvaged Jaeger in kaiju-overrun Australia.

Prime Video’s Pacific Rim TV series is in development; no casting or release date have yet been announced. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.

Pacific Rim

Release Date

July 12, 2013

Runtime

131 minutes

Director

Guillermo del Toro

Where to watch

Source: Variety