Pacific Rim Uprising director Steven S. DeKnight has a plan to get "the band back together" in Pacific Rim 3. It's not yet clear what the future holds for the Pacific Rim series, now that Uprising has come and gone in theaters. The sequel grossed $290 million in theaters worldwide against a $150 million budget and garnered lukewarm reviews on the whole, making it far from a runaway success. At the same time, Uprising's ending certainly sets the stage for a third showdown in the war between humanity, the Kaijus, and the creatures' other-worldly masters, The Precursors.

DeKnight has similarly made it clear in the past that he has a plan for a third Pacific Rim movie, should it ever come to pass. The director recently turned heads when he revealed that Mako Mori's story would continue in Pacific Rim 3, despite her death in Uprising's first act. It sounds like Mako wouldn't be the only familiar face to return in a third film either, based on what DeKnight told us in an exclusive interview.

Screen Rant got a chance to talk to DeKnight recently about Uprising and what the future holds for the Pacific Rim property in general. The director admitted that he doesn't know if Pacific Rim 3 will happen, nor that he would be involved, given his current work load. At the same time though, DeKnight revealed that he's already got a blueprint in place for the film, should it come to pass:

When we were Pacific Rim Uprising, I was taking a lot of notes on what we would do for the third movie, if we had a third movie, and if I was involved I’d pass along a lot of those ideas during that time to the good people at Legendary. But whether or not there’s a third movie is completely above my paygrade. I haven’t heard anything. My own schedule is getting a little complicated, so even if there is [a third movie] I’m not sure I’d have the bandwidth to be involved. But yeah, there was a very clear idea for what the third movie was. Without giving too much away, I can say getting the band back together was a very large part of it.

Raleigh looking up while wearing a battle suit in Pacific Rim.

"The band", is this case, seems to refer to all the major characters who were still alive by the end of the first Pacific Rim, but didn't return for Uprising. Charlie Hunnam's Raleigh Becket would be the most obvious example that comes to mind, seeing as he and Mako shared protagonist duties in the original movie. A scheduling conflict with production on Papillon prevented Hunnam from being able to reprise his role for Uprising, but DeKnight has already made it clear that he purposely left the door open for Hunnam to return in Pacific Rim 3.

Based on the director's comments, it sounds like his plan is to reunite Raleigh and Mako in some way in Pacific Rim 3. The film could even throw in some cameos by other Pacific Rim characters that failed to make the cut in Uprising (like Ron Perlman's Hannibal Chau), for good measure. Of course, as much as many fans may want to see Raleigh and Mako share the screen again, it might be too late for that to happen at this stage, in the wake of Uprising's disappointing turnout at the box office.

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We will bring you more details on Pacific Rim 3 as they become available.