Here's a bit of disturbing news coming out of Burbank, California tonight. Insiders at Warner Bros. are claiming that Pacific Rim 2 has been delayed. Guillermo del Toro has promised in many interviews over the course of this past year that shooting would definitely start in fall 2015. Now, it doesn't look like things will get underway on the sequel until sometime in 2016.

Spies working exclusively for Latino Review were the first to divulge this news. Pacific Rim 2 was all set to start shooting this November in Toronto. Guillermo del Toro was set to make the sequel his top priority once he finished all promotional work on his upcoming haunted house thriller Crimson Peak. But now, those plans have reportedly changed. Believed to be titled Pacific Rim: Maelstrom, all shooting on the project is being delayed until sometime in 2016, though an official start date is not given.

Warner Bros. has already handed out an August 4, 2017 release date for Pacific Rim 2. There is no official word from the studio or the director about this hold-up, or what is causing it. Though, we can expect that it may affect the release date, pushing it to a holiday 2017 release, or even a spring 2018 release. Latino Review personally reached out to Legendary Pictures for comment, but they claimed they could not speak about the delay at any length.

At the Television Critics Association press tour earlier this year, Guillermo del Toro seemed quite excited about Pacific Rim: Maelstrom. He confirmed that Charlie Hunnam will be returning in the movie, along with most of the cast members who survived the carnage of the first sci-fi adventure. He also revealed that Charlie Day has a great part, indicating that the script is either finished or close to being done. He went onto hint that we'll see the return of Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam) and Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi) as retired Jaeger pilots who once saved the world from rampaging beasts. Dr. Newton Geiszler (Charlie Day) and Gottlieb (Burn Gorman) will be back as scientists obsessed with the Kaiju. And even Ron Perlman's Hannibal Chau may return, despite being seemingly killed by one of the Kaiju. Those who stuck around for the post-credit scene knows he suffered a different fate than mere death.

At the moment, none of the actors appear to be signed for a sequel. But both Charlie Hunnam and Burn Gorman are returning in this fall's Crimson Peak, which hints at a good working relationship between the actors and their director. Just recently, Charlie Hunnam teased his return as Raleigh, saying he wants more of a character arc and more story, with less CG action. Though, with the film to possibly go off-planet to focus more on the Kaiju, that seems unlikely.

Dr. Newton Geiszler and Gottlieb are said to be the two main characters in Pacific Rim 2, marking a substantial shift away from the Jaeger action seen in chapter one. Not much of the plot is know at this point. The world is in less of a threat that the Kaiju will attack any minute, and the Jaegers aren't as needed in this climate. How the pilots move forward in this post-Kaiju world will be one element at play. And the Kaiju will have to be brought back into the mix somehow, or it just won't be Pacific Rim 2. So, what do you make of this delay?