In the world of Pacific Rim, It's been 10 years since Gipsy Danger and the PPDC closed the Breach. In that time, Jaeger technology has taken some immense leaps, going from lumbering titans to swift athletic figures. That's a good thing, because the Kaiju haven't exactly been doing nothing for a decade. The aliens on the other side are likely not happy with their defeat, and when the Kaiju return, they'll be a force to be reckoned with. I asked Steven S. DeKnight, the director of Pacific Rim Uprising, if the Kaiju have improved themselves at all in this time. Here's what he said:
Absolutely! They have evolved or they have been -- as we learned in the first movie, they are genetically designed as bioweapons, and the aliens on the other side have also been tinkering and upgrading. So when the next Kaiju attack happens, yes, they will be as advanced as the Jaegers are.
If only the Jaegers had advanced in 10 years, then it wouldn't make for an exciting fight! Fans can look forward to new and improved Kaiju battling with a new generation of Jaeger pilots, and they've had a decade to rethink their plan. Steven S. DeKnight wasn't able to get into specifics about all the new Kaiju powers, but fans have already seen a few teases.
The first trailer showed off a lot of new footage of Pacific Rim Uprising, and this includes some quick shots of the Kaiju menace. The big talking point is the tease of an enormous Kaiju that towers over Gipsy Avenger and its allies. His size is definitely something to be worried about, but it also looks like he might be stitching himself together (this is really hard to tell, though). If that is what's actually happening, then it means Kaiju can heal now, which essentially triples their threat level.
But new powers aren't all the ways the Kaiju have been enhanced by their creators. After all, these beasts are just bioweapons made by an alien race of conquerors to wipe out humanity. The thing with that, though, is that there are probably one million more effective ways to wipe out a species than making specific giant monsters. Steven S. DeKnight knows this and teased that these aliens might have a different agenda than the characters think. He continued:
There hasn't been another breach in 10 years when we start, and there are those who think that the war is completely over. And there are others like Scott Eastwood's character who believe that you can't really know if you've defeated your enemy unless you understand what their objective was. And he feels like they still don't quite understand what exactly the aliens on the other side were trying to do. Because if you want to wipe out an entire species, all of humanity, by sending in some giant monsters to stomp on some cities...it doesn't seem like the best way to do it. So he thinks there might be something else going on.
Considering that Pacific Rim Uprising could be sparking a new franchise, it makes sense that the aliens have a more complicated long game than "Let's smash em' up real good." We'll learn how all this unfolds when the sequel premieres on March 23, 2018. In the meantime, check out we know so far about the blockbuster.
