Pacific Rim featured Idris Elba's Stacker Pentecost as one of its main protagonists, and Pacific Rim Uprising will continue to spotlight the Pentecost family. Star Wars: The Force Awakens star John Boyega is continuing to build his blockbuster profile by playing Stacker's son, Jake, in the sequel. We've already learned some details about Jake Pentecost's past, but for those interested to learn more about what he's up to before the events of Uprising, you'll want to check out an upcoming comic book series.
Legendary Comics has announced (via THR) that it is publishing a six-issue miniseries titled Pacific Rim: Aftermath that takes place nine years after the events of Pacific Rim, and a year before Pacific Rim Uprising kicks off. The story will follow Jake Pentecost looking into the truth of his father's death, who sacrificed himself in the first movie to destroy The Breach, the interdimensional portal that the Kaiju were coming through. The miniseries will also introduce a former Jaeger pilot named Griffin who is now an enforcer for a "corrupt mob boss," as well as The Mech Czar, a mysterious criminal who controls the underworld. Cavan Scott is writing the comic book, while Richard Elson is handling the artwork.
As we've learned in previous reports about Pacific Rim Uprising, Jake Pentecost followed in his footsteps and trained to become a Jaeger pilot. But his strained relationship with Stacker eventually led to a falling out, and in the years since Jake has been making ends meet as a black market dealer. Uprising will see Jake being drawn back into the Jaeger program, but this Pacific Rim: Aftermath will offer more insight into his criminal life. Given that The Mech Czar is described as literally ruling with an iron fist, one can surmise that there will be a fair amount of mecha action over the course of this tale's six issues. After all, just because Jake isn't an official Jaeger pilot during this period doesn't necessarily mean he hasn't jumped back into one of those robots.
Pacific Rim ended with the main protagonists preventing the Kaiju from wiping out humanity, but a decade later, these monsters have returned, and they're better than ever. So on top of dealing with nefarious parties on Earth who've obtained their own mechas for sinister use, the sequel's main characters will need to use the latest and greatest Jaeger models to thwart another invasion. Along with John Boyega's Jake Pentecost, Pacific Rim Uprising's cast includes newcomers like Soctt Eastwood's Nate Lambert, Caile Spaeny's Amara Namani and Jing Tian's Liwen Shao, as well as returning faces like Charlie Day's Newt Geiszler, Rinko Kikuchi's Mako Mori and Burn Gorman's Hermann Gottlieb.
You can pick up Pacific Rim: Aftermath #1 digitally or at your local comic book store on January 17. Pacific Rim Uprising opens in theaters on March 23, 2018. To find out when next year's other highly-anticipated releases are coming out, browse through our 2018 premiere guide.
