A quick refresher for those not up on the brief but troubled history of the sequel to Guillermo del Toro’s kaiju-throwback Pacific Rim: First, the notorious G.D.T. confirmed that the sequel would be here by April 2017. The production team had plans to beginning shooting back in November, but by September, presiding studio Universal had deemed a Pacific Rim sequel a low priority and placed it on the proverbial back burner. After indefinitely halting production on the film in mid-September, Universal took the film off of its release calendar at the end of that month. As recently as last month, Universal stated it had no interest in producing the film on its own — perhaps due to Crimson Peak’s sadly lackluster showing at the box-office — but apparently the project has taken on a new life due to Legendary Pictures. (Worth noting is that Legendary was recently acquired by China’s Wanda Pictures, and that Pacific Rim played like gangbusters overseas.)

While Universal has agreed to stay on as distributor, Legendary will be the studio actively overseeing the production of Pacific Rim 2, which is now not only back on, but even has a director. Steven S. DeKnight, the creator of the Starz series Spartacus and more recently a staff writer/executive producer for Netflix’s Daredevil, has agreed to direct the planned sequel. A TV veteran, DeKnight has worked on everything from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Smallville, but this will mark his first go as a director for the silver screen. The Deadline item that broke this news also reported that there‘s a script in place, courtesy of Jon Spaihts, Prometheus co-writer and scribe behind the upcoming Doctor Strange movie.

No way that they’re still going to be able to hit the original projected release of April 2017, so we’ll all just have to stay tuned as production continues and Legendary pins down a release date. Like the majority of del Toro‘s pictures, Pacific Rim didn‘t quite connect with a mass mainstream audience, but made ardent fans out of a small but vocal group of supporters. The awaiting faithful greet this news with celebration, and now await further updates.

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