There's a lot riding on Pacific Rim 2. Namely Hellboy 3. If Guillermo del Toro's Jaeger vs Kaiju follow-up is a huge smash at the box office, Legendary will finally consider backing the finale to his Hellboy trilogy. This morning, we finally have word that Pacific Rim 2 is going to start shooting in the fall, and it even has a working title that may stay in place as the official title once it's released.

A Guillermo del Toro movie is a precious thing, as he has so many projects in development at all times, it's not often that we get a finished product. That happens this Halloween, as his long-awaited gothic thriller Crimson Peak finally hits theaters October 16. At that point, he will be done with his grueling press tour for the film. He will take a couple weeks off, and then jump right into Pacific Rim 2. The sequel is currently known as Maelstrom, and according to Global News Canada, will shoot this November in Toronto.

2013's Pacific Rim did a lot to set up a solid franchise, though it only cleared $101 million in the states, coming off a budget of $190 million. That's bordering on bomb territory. But the film is based in Japanese folklore, and pulled in an impressive $411 million globally, which insured a second movie would get made. There is also an animated series and a comic book series in the works, all of which connect to the feature film side of this world.

Pacific Rim 2 will require extensive production and post-production work, with Guillermo del Toro preparing for the process all throughout this past year. The film is scheduled for late summer 2017, and it looks to be on target. It was originally slated to open in spring 2017, giving its director a little extra breathing room. Though the film is already gearing up, not much about its plot has leaked yet. Guillermo del Toro did say at Comic-Con that the movie will pick up a few years after the events of the first film.

Pacific Rim 2 is going to explore the mythology behind the giant Kajiu, with the monsters at the forefront of the action instead of the mechanical Jaegers and their pilots. Its heavily speculated that the Maelstrom title won't stay in place, especially since Guillermo del Toro is a fan of numbering his sequels. This will be the third time he's made the second chapter in a movie series, following Blade 2 and Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

A genre fan himself, Guillermo del Toro has noted that too many sequels fall into the trap of recycling the first movie's plotline. He promises that won't happen with Pacific Rim 2. He calls it 'quite a jump' from the original. The Kaiju will no longer be attacking earth. At one point, the director and co-creator of this world wanted to make Charlie Day's scientist Newt the villain. That plans was abandoned awhile ago. Like Hellboy, Pacific Rim is envisioned as a trilogy, but part 3 of both series hinges on how well Pacific Rim 2 does at the box office. And though it may never happen, it sounds like the director already has a plan mapped out for the final chapter in this series, though future films aren't ruled out.