No, Guillermo del Toro is not directing Pacific Rim 2

Steven S. DeKnight, director and writer known for TV series Spartacus: Blood and Sand (2010), Smallville (2005) and Daredevil (2015) is also the new director for Pacific Rim 2: Uprising.

DeKnight was born in New Jersey on April 4th, 1964, and has been working as a director, writer and producer since 1999. His first work as a writer was in 1999 for a TV series called “Undressed” where he wrote 28 episodes of the series. And his first work as a director was back in 2003 with a TV series named “Angel” where he directed 3 episodes of the series.

The 2013 Pacific Rim movie was directed by Guillermo del Toro, but Guillermo explained in an interview why he will not be the director of this sequel. In order to shoot and direct The Shape of Water – which will be released this year – Guillermo del Toro had to decide whether to wait 9 months before they could start shooting, or leaving Pacific Rim 2 in another’s hands. Thankfully, he chose Steven DeKnight.

Steven S. DeKnight. Image via IMDb.

Guillermo del Toro said “It was such a great choice. I love DeKnight, love what he does. I think he’s really brilliant… He’s doing things differently, and I like that.” DeKnight’s job with Daredevil and other TV shows have been neat and aesthetic, that it’s unbelievable this is his first movie as a director.

Guillermo del Toro is still producing Pacific Rim 2. DeKnight is working with a $150 million dollar budget, so we are eager to see what kind of CGI effects and action scenes his experience will bring into Pacific Rim 2.

Something quite funny is a tweet DeKnight retweeted. The tweet, by @chrismcquarrie says “Screenwriter tip: Have you tried complete and utter despair?” and DeKnight retweeted it adding “I have! Along with eating my delicious feelings!” Let’s hope Pacific Rim 2 has a happy ending, or at least one without Kaijus.

The newly released trailer shows off the new Jaegers built by the Jaeger program, and the trailer beautifully explains what a Jaeger is: “Tall as a mountain, with a beating heart that burns as the sun”, Jaegers are the robotic weapons created to stop the Kaiju – huge sea monsters who in just 6 days, as seen in the first movie, destroyed several cities and killed millions of people.

But this movie will not start just where the last one ended. The Pacific Rim 2 plot seems to be as mysterious as the teaser trailer itself, which was revealed in this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. It will be 10 years after the war, with new Jaegers – which apparently can be controlled by one person instead of two – and with humanity ready to face a new wave of Kaijus.

February 23rd, 2018 is the date of the release of this movie, so there’s still a lot of time for more information and updates to come. We can expect an official trailer to be released 2-3 months before the release date.