Pacific Rim: Uprising just arrived in theaters, but it's never too soon to start thinking about the future. Assuming the franchise comes back for another installment, director Steven S. DeKnight already has the story idea in place for Pacific Rim 3. The question is, will Pacific Rim 2 do enough business at the box office for Legendary Pictures to justify the existence of a third movie of giant robot/giant alien action? That remains to be seen, but don't hold your breath. After all, it took us five years just to get one sequel.

Steven S. DeKnight, best known for his small screen work on shows like Daredevil and Spartacus, makes his feature directorial debut with Pacific Rim: Uprising. He took over for Guillermo del Toro, who helmed the original 2013 movie. Unfortunately, del Toro departed the sequel and, to his benefit, made The Shape of Water instead. DeKnight is hopeful about the future and, in a recent interview while promoting the sequel, he revealed that he's got a clear idea for the future of the franchise. Here's what he had to say about it.

"I can't give any details, but yes, I have a very clear idea [for the future]. When we were developing Uprising I was constantly jotting down notes about what I would want to do for the next movie. So I have a very, very rough outline of what that movie would be. And the plan was always to do the third installment, and then at the end of that movie expand the universe to a Star Wars/Star Trek-style [franchise] where it could go in many different directions. Different stories, main canon, side stories, standalones, the whole thing."

It certainly sounds like Steven S. DeKnight has some ambitions plans, but let's not get too ahead of ourselves here. Not to spoil anything, but the very end up Pacific Rim: Uprising does pretty clearly set up where Pacific Rim 3 could go. And, from there, it's not hard to imagine one could expand the series in all kinds of directions. But these movies are expensive to make and that means, they have to make a lot of money in order to justify their existence. And, as it stands, Pacific Rim 2 isn't exactly going to be a breakout hit that rakes in enough money at the box office to call for a cinematic universe.

Pacific Rim: Uprising is likely to dethrone Black Panther at the domestic box office this weekend, but it's probably not going to crack the $30 million mark on its opening weekend. With that in mind, it's going to rely heavily on international box office in order to make enough money for the studio to move forward with Pacific Rim 3. For what it may be worth, Uprising currently has a 47 percent approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, with a 60 percent audience rating. Both of which are lower than that of the first Pacific Rim. This news comes to us courtesy of JoBlo.