Charlie Hunnam Has One Condition To Return For Pacific Rim 3

Guillermo del Toro’s mecha vs kaiju beat-em-up blockbuster “Pacific Rim” is still his biggest commercial hit, but the sequel “Pacific Rim: Uprising” is largely considered a wash. Neither del Toro nor star Charlie Hunnam returned for “Uprising,” which makes it extra easy to write off. 

Hunnam played Raleigh Becket, a pilot of the “Jaeger” mecha Gipsy Danger, which was designed to kill enormous extradimensional monsters. In an interview with Inverse, when asked if he’d go back for a potential “Pacific Rim 3,” Hunnam suggested it would need to be del Toro calling him back: “I would do anything that Guillermo was doing. If Guillermo invites me to do ‘Pacific Rim 3,’ I’ll be there, or anything else he wants me to do.”

Hunnam and del Toro first met when the latter was auditioning for “Hellboy II: The Golden Army.” Hunnam did a make-up test for the film’s villain, the cream-skinned elf Prince Nuada, but del Toro decided he wasn’t right for the part. He did tell Hunnam he’d like to work with him in the future, though, and this was no empty promise. After all, Nuada was ultimately played by Luke Goss, who’d previously appeared as vampire villain Jared Nomak in del Toro’s “Blade II.” The director clearly cultivates and returns loyalty from his actors.

The link that kept del Toro and Hunnam in contact after that was Ron Perlman, who’d played Hellboy in the two del Toro films and then starred with Hunnam in biker TV drama “Sons of Anarchy.” (Their characters’ dynamic on that show would be quite funny if the two had previously faced-off in make-up onscreen during “Hellboy II.”) Hunnam told GQ that Perlman would sometimes pass on messages of praise to him from del Toro, a “Sons of Anarchy” fan. The actor and director finally collaborated on “Pacific Rim,” and apparently got on so well that del Toro then cast Hunnam in his next film, gothic ghost story “Crimson Peak.”

Will there even be a “Pacific Rim 3”, though? Neither film lit the box office on fire and “Uprising” made less money than the first. Plus, the direction of the sequel dampened enthusiasm for more.

In del Toro’s stead, “Uprising” was directed by Steven S. DeKnight in his first (and since, only) pivot from screenwriting to directing. No offense intended to DeKnight — I’ve enjoyed his TV writing work on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” and “Daredevil” — but he’s no Guillermo del Toro. “Pacific Rim Uprising” lacks the scale, style, and giddy fun of del Toro’s original. The beautiful palette is wiped away, replaced by the concrete color-grading you’d see in a Marvel Studios film. The film’s mortal sin is killing off Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi). For most “Pacific Rim” fans, she was the original’s real hero, not Raleigh.

A third “Pacific Rim” movie would probably need del Toro behind it, not just to bring back Hunnam. Only he could marshal enough fan support and passion to get it over the finish line. Right now, del Toro is busy with his dream project — “Frankenstein” — and he previously said back in 2021 he’s not planning on returning to “Pacific Rim.”

Before “Uprising,” del Toro did write a “very different” script for a “Pacific Rim” sequel. Would this have brought back Hunnam as Raleigh and/or spared Mako? We can only wonder.