'Pacific Rim' And Godzilla Crossover Shot Down (And Other Giant Robot Vs Giant Monster Tidbits)

A few weeks ago, the internet heard news of a potential spin-off between the Pacific Rim movies and the "MonsterVerse," the current home of King Kong and Godzilla. And it made sense. After all, both of these series are spearheaded by Legendary Pictures. Both of them involve giant monsters. Sure, they would somehow have to be massaged into the same world, but they'd find a way.

But you should never count your kaiju before they hatch – this crossover has already been nipped in the bud by Legendary Pictures producer Cale Boyter.

Speaking with CinemaBlend, Boyter said that we won't be seeing Jaegers fighting the King of the Monsters any time soon. However, he does hint that something else is in the works:

"There's no plans to merge. Understandably that might be cool, but I might have something up my sleeve that will surprise you – that I think you guys will love, that I think is better than the obvious approach."

So, what could be up his sleeve that will prove surprising and worth mentioning as a salve to people bummed out by this crossover not actually existing? This is normally the point where I'd offer an educated guess or some speculation, but I've got nada. Anyway, Boyter's quotes don't necessarily contradict the statement from Pacific Rim Uprising director Steven S. DeKnight, who was the one who originally brought up this whole crossover thing:

"...there's been a lot of discussion about that possibility [of crossing over]. Look, I think it would be fantastic to have the Pacific Rim universe join Legendary's Monster Universe, it seems like a natural step. And part of the big overall plan after the third movie we've talked about is that could happen, it's always a possibility. It's by far not a certainty; it's merely theoretical at this point, but as a fan myself I would love to see that happen."

In retrospect, sure, of course everyone at Legendary has had this conversation. Because talk is talk and not a $150 million movie. Pulling the trigger on an idea as nutty as this is another thing altogether.

Speaking of Cale Boyer trying to smooth things over as elegantly as possible, the producer spoke to Coming Soon when they visited the set of Pacific Rim Uprising and talked about the role of original director Guillermo del Toro in the sequel:

"He's been involved from the different ideas, weighing in, the different drafts.We send him all the visuals and everything. He loves Boyega. Obviously all the stuff he looked at he's touched and noted. He hasn't been here yet. I wouldn't be surprised if at some point he ends up here. Moves things around and I'll be like 'No, go back over there.'"

We never received a full explanation for why del Toro didn't return for Pacific Rim Uprising, but it certainly sounds like he doesn't have much of a hand in the sequel at all. In fact, the lead character from the first movie has been excised completely, although Steven S. DeKnight revealed that Charlie Hunnam's Raleigh Becket was in the original screenplay, but had to be removed when the actor decided to pursue another project:

"Then I sent [Emily Carmichael and Kira Snyder] off to write the script because we only had like three weeks to write it at that point, and as they were writing, I was rewriting, and then we had a draft of the script at that point. Then, if I remember the story correctly, I turned it in, Legendary loves it, and literally 24 hours later, Charlie Hunnam announces he was doing the Papillon remake and wasn't available, so we had a bit of a scramble to reconceive the idea."

So there you go: the Pacific Rim series seems to be going off in its own direction at this point, without any del Toro and without any Godzilla.

Pacific Rim Uprising opens on March 23, 2018.