It is time to once again cancel the apocalypse, only this time, in animated form as Netflix gives us our first look at the upcoming Pacific Rim: The Animated Series, Pacific Rim: The Black. Due for release onto the streaming service sometime in 2021, Pacific Rim: The Black has X-Men: Evolution and Wolverine and the X-Men's Craig Kyle and Greg Johnson on board as showrunners.
"Long ago, humanitydefeated the Kaiju. Now, they're evacuating Australia. In 2021 join a pair of siblings and their battered, long-abandoned Jaegar as they battle across a continent of danger in Pacific Rim: The Black."
The series is being co-produced by Tokyo-based animation company Polygon Pictures and has already been given a two-season order by the streaming giant. It is currently unknown how many episodes will be included across the two seasons or when exactly they will premiere.
Netflix first announced the animated series two years ago, with Pacific Rim: The Black set to pick up with the franchise long after the battle between the Kaiju and the Jaegers. That time has passed, but now, Australia has been overrun by Kaiju, forcing the evacuation of an entire continent. Left behind, teenage siblings Taylor and Hayley embark on a desperate search for their missing parents, teaching themselves to pilot a battered, long-abandoned Jaeger to help in their quest and give them even the slightest hope of surviving.
Based on Legendary's hit franchise Pacific Rim, vice president of brand development and consumer products Elie Dekel previously said, "[This is] one of the biggest budget anime series I've had the pleasure of working on, and I think that speaks to the commitment of Netflix and Legendary [to anime]."
Directed by Guillermo Del Toro, the first Pacific Rim begins in 2013 when an interdimensional portal called "the Breach" opens at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, from which giant monsters, the Kaiju, emerge, destroying various cities across the Pacific Rim. In response, humanity builds massive robots called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge, to combat the monsters.
Forwarding to 2020 (uh oh), the sequel, Pacific Rim: Uprising finds director Steven S. DeKnight at the helm. The war has continued to rage on and now even the Jaegers are proving nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless Kaiju. On the verge of defeat, the forces defending mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes, a washed-up former pilot and an untested trainee, who are teamed to drive a legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger from the past. Together, they stand as mankind's last hope against the mounting apocalypse.
Pacific Rim: The Black is sure to get tongues wagging regarding the continuation of the franchise in live action, and while this is unlikely to ever happen, director Steven S. DeKnight did reveal that he had a third movie all mapped out back in 2018. "I can't give any details, but yes, I have a very clear idea [for the future]," he said. "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."
The Pacific Rim: The Black first look comes to us from @NXOnNetflix.
