After months of speculations, Guillermo del Toro is finally confirmed to shoot "Pacific Rim 2" this year.
According to Yahoo!, the monters vs. robots themed movie sequel is going to start production in November.
While the release date has been pushed until Aug. 4, 2017, del Toro promised fans that they're up for some "epic battle," as if the original movie was not enough.
He's apparently busy working on designing the robots and kaijus in preparation for their battle in "Pacific Rim 2."
"We have an epic battle at the end [that] we started designing a couple weeks ago," he revealed.
In addition, the sequel is reportedly set a few years following the events of the first movie, where it will now delve further into the world of the kaijus.
And in a separate interview with BuzzFeed while promoting the premiere episode for "The Strain," del Toro added that he's been trying to figure out how to twist the plot with Zak Penn.
"I'm working very, very hard with Zak Penn," he explained of "Pacific Rim 2" progress. "We've been working for a few months now in secret. We found a way to twist it around. Travis Beacham was involved in the storyline and now I'm writing with Zak because Travis has become a TV mogul."
And while everything seemed to be right on track del Toro admitted the process did not come without challeges, Collider reported.
"It was hard to create a world that did not come from a comic book," he explained.
"That had its own mythology, so we had to sacrifice many aspects to be able to cram everything in the first movie. Namely, for example 'the Drift,' this was an interesting concept. [Then there was] this portal that ripped a hole into the fabric of our universe, what were the tools they were using? And we came up with a really, really interesting idea. I don't want to spoil it, but I think at the end of the second movie, people will find out that the two movies stand on their own. They're very different from each other, although hopefully bringing the same joyful giant spectacle. But the tenor of the two movies will be quite different."
And while it hasn't been made official yet, del Toro revealed that his favorite characters, including Raleigh played by "Sons of Anarchy" star Charlie Hunnam, is going to return to "Pacific Rim 2."
"The characters I love will return," del Toro said according to IGN. "Raleigh, Mako, Newt, Gottlieb and who knows, maybe even Hannibal Chau - but we are taking them into a fresh territory that will display amazing sights and battles. The first film set the stage and now we're ready to have a blast."
In an interview with Movie Pilot, del Toro added that together with original characters, new ones will also be introduced in "Pacific Rim 2."
"What's great is it's a great set-up and a link between the first movie and the second movie. It really enhances the mythology of the characters; we have cameos of characters from the first movie, but mostly it's a new set of characters. New jaegers, except for one or two, [and] new kaijus. It's really fun."
